Shatterpoint
by SilverIcy
Summary: Died stopping Sasuke from assassinating her vulnerable teacher and the kages, Sakura found herself reincarnating as the heiress of the extinct unknown clan in the Clans Warring Era. Post-Chapter 691/AU non-chronological drabbles.
1. Scream

**Summary:** Sakura's reaction to her new peculiar situation.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Michiko-sama, It's strange... your daughter is rather quiet for a baby, Also, she has more yin chakra than nor-" Said voice was cut off.

"I was aware the moment she was born. Kaori-san." A melodious, feminine voice from a woman, whom Sakura identified as Michiko, interrupted Kaori.

Through her newly functioning eyes, Sakura could barely make out the azure blue eyes staring at her.

"_Kon'nichiwa, Shihoin-han no Masumi Shihoin, watashi wa anata no atarashī haha to anata o kangei suru kōei, watashi no aisuru musume yo._" Strangely, Michiko was addressing formally and directly at her almost as if she greeted her as a honored guest.

In her mind, Sakura- now christening Masumi was still stunned by her sudden re-installed as a newborn baby and finally registered that Michiko was her new mother.

She then proceeded to scream her lungs out. Loudly.

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**A/N:** What did you thinking of my new drabble story?

My muse suddenly dropped a bomb on me, and I can't stop thinking of a new idea. So I wrote down that idea.

A reason I titled my story 'Shatterpoint' was, it referred to the Star Wars' complex Force phenomenon called shatterpoint. Shatterpoints were akin to fault lines; similar to different pathways of actions.

Sakura reborn as a heiress of the supposed extinct unknown clan in the Clan Warring Era and had a power to change her new clan's fate. It certainly counted as the flutter of a butterfly's wing could ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.

This new story had a same drabble format as my other story, The Pink and White Drabbles. It was out of order in the timeline and random in the different points of the timeline.

You might thinking that my version of a canon character reborn as a newborn baby in the Clans Warring Era was cliché. But I assured you that this new story is very, very different than what you expect of the typical stories of these kinds that you read. You'll find out in the future drabbles.

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing! **Update:** Edit in 12/30, Many thanks to my new beta-reader, AshKetchumNow.

Translation: _"Hello, Masumi Shihoin of the Shihoin Clan, I am your new mother and honored to welcome you, my dear daughter."_


	2. Asleep

**Summary:** Michiko was lulling her crying daughter to sleep.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Gentle hands lifted up the wailing baby girl. Her small body leaned against a steady shoulder, a hand under her bottom keeping her in place, and another hand patting her back lightly. A melodious voice hummed right next to her ear, sounding quite nice to her sensitive newborn hearing. A larger body swayed from side to side lazily and hypnotically.

The high-pitched wailing from her tiny mouth subsided slowly from the swaying motion, calming her down almost immediately. It reduced into pitiful whimpering as the time passed, her body running out of energy to produce anything louder. Her whimpering vanishes, throat sore and raw, resulting from her loud screaming. She felt bone-tired, and all she wanted was to sleep; to not think anymore.

"Go to sleep, my daughter." Michiko says knowingly, as she released slow waves of her warm, calming chakra. Involuntarily, the infant closed her eyes, body relaxing under the soothing effect of the warm chakra. Her teenage mind, trapped inside of this newborn baby, flashes memories of her unexpected death by that traitor's hands, and the shocking revelation of her rebirth. Adding to these factors, a trauma of her recent birth also took a toll on her physically and mentally. With a combination of the mental exhaustion and her mother's comforting aura, it caused Masumi to fall asleep.

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**A/N:** Another fast short update from me! My muse was pumping for this new story! How consideration of Michiko to lull her newborn daughter to sleep!

Oh by the way, Did you know Sakura's new name, Masumi means? MASUMI (真澄): Japanese unisex name meaning "true lucidity." Michiko named her that name. Mmm, something smell fishy here...*wink wink* You'll find out more about this mysterious Michiko Shihoin. And be ready for the mother and daughter moments incoming! :)

Edit at 10/03: Many thanks to Outcast001 for the suggestions to improving chapter 1 and 2!

Update at 12/31: A kudos to my beta-reader, AshKetchumNow!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	3. Women Warriors

**Summary:** Masumi asked her mother a question about regarding her confusion about her clan. And ended up receiving little more than she expected.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Michiko could sense her daughter's confusion about something.

"Mother."

"Yes?"

"Why are there so many women and so few men in our clan?" A green-haired, three year-old girl asked in confusion. Her speech was very advanced and impressive for a toddler her age. It was obvious that the heiress was very intelligent. She was more than likely going to be a genius in only a few years, with how quickly she was developing.

"Ah, that's because of our bloodline limit."

Masumi blinked in surprise, she wasn't aware that her clan had their own bloodline limit.

"Bloodline limit?" She already knew about its meaning, but she asked anyway since a child her age shouldn't know that word. Her mother's azure-blue eyes twinkled knowingly with slight amusement.

"A Bloodline limit is a special ability that's passed down through genetics and is in only certain clans."

"Ah, I see... What kind of bloodline limit does our clan have?" A curious expression formed on her face, her blue-green eyes shining with the inquisitiveness. Masumi was dying to know more about their bloodline limit.

_Adorable._ Michiko mused inwardly, and asked with a mysterious smile, "What do _you_ think our bloodline limit is?"

Her mother's question stumped her. "Huh?...uh, I don't understand, Mother."

"You already know that, daughter. Have you not noticed anything unusual about yourself?"

_What exactly did she mean? Something unusual about me?_ The little girl formed into a thinking position childishly, thinking hard. Her thinking stance made the older woman internally coo at her cute daughter.

Then, a literal spark of understanding went off over her daughter's head.

"Oh. OH!" Masumi exclaimed in sudden clarification. "You mean like that warm thingy in the air I feel sometimes?"

"Yes, that's correct. That warm thingy in the air you feel is called chakra. In simpler words, we can sense the chakra."

"Ho-"

"Don't worry about that. You will learn more about our bloodline limit when you are older." Michiko said calmly, interrupting her before her inquisitive daughter could ask the endless questions aiming at her.

The green haired toddler sulked slightly, then perked up as if remembering something.

"Okay, but what does our bloodline have to do with so many women and so few men?"

The Clan Head smiled at her sharp memory and explained, "Our bloodline limit prevents us from having baby boys. Instead we give birth to a lot of baby girls!"

"We can't have male babies?" She asked confusedly in a cute manner.

An older green haired woman answered, "No, we can have them. Just not as often as females."

"But what if we cure this problem?"

"No. It's not possible."

"How come?"

"Because our medical kunoichi's already researched this problem a long time ago. We found out that; by removing our problem, we'll lose our bloodline limit."

Masumi deflated at the given information. "Oh."

"Because of this, we have to seek out strong men from different families to keep our clan stable and healthy." Inwardly Masami suddenly understood her mother's subtle implication.

Whoa, her mother was quite blunt and it might explain why she saw so many single mothers in her clan. Or why she had no father. It meant that they seduced the targeted males and stole their seed without their consent. It almost sounded like rape to her, much to her discomfort.

Unable to escape from her sharp eyes, her daughter looked disquieted, Michiko sighed and spoke, "I know you don't understand why we do it, but it's important to ensure our bloodline stays alive. Besides, I wanted to marry and have a child. But my choices of men were very small, and all of them were already married to others. Our laws strictly forbid multiple women from marrying one man. It would cause a lot of inbreeding in our clan, amongst many other good reasons."

Masumi nodded. Her medical ninja aspect understood her mother's reasoning and knew too well about the dangers of inbreeding.

A result of having too many women with their bloodline limit; they'd end up taking the ninja profession that was traditionally reserved for the males in other clans.

No wonder the Shihoin clan rightly reputed as the Clan of the Women Warriors.

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**A/N:** Woohoo! A longer update! Finally, we had a background and the inner workings on the Shihoin Clan and its unique bloodline limit! Woh, so this clan had a full of the strong and badass female ninjas! It reminded you of the Amazons Tribe in Greek myth, is it? That concept of the Shihoin Clan was based on that. Did you like the Shihoin Clan and its bloodline limit that I created? You'll learn out more in the upcoming drabbles. *wink*

An idea of Sakura reborn there in this clan where the strong kunoichi development and strong women actively encouraged? Other clans in this era would not accept that kind of environment, Remember that Clan Warring Era where the sexist attitude strongly existing there.

Hence why I think that it's totally awesome! Although the Shihoin Clan wasn't perfect, like any clans, they have their own problems. I wonder why that clan went extinct in her previous lifetime. Mmm, we'll one day found out in the one of the future drabbles.

Update at 01/02/2015: A kudos to my beta-reader, AshKetcumNow!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	4. Missive

**Summary:** As the founders of recently created Konoha, they usually received the requests of the clans and people who wanted to join their village. However they did not expecting to receive a request from a reclusive infamous clan.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Hashirama's mouth opened and closed in a fish-like manner, his eyes looking ready to pop out of its sockets as he continued to read the scroll. Looking over his older brother's shoulder to read the context, Tobirama raised his white eyebrow high into his hairline, a calculating glint formed in his red eyes.

Across the room, a long black-haired man leaned against the freshly refurbished wall. Madara Uchiha raised his eyebrow as his former rival gaped at the scroll, the younger white haired man crouching with an expression that could only be identified as cunning. He was becoming curious about that scroll.

He asked, "So, what's in this scroll?"

"..." The Senju Clan head was unable to form words.

"Well?" He half demanded and half asked them.

"It's from the Shihoin Clan. They want to join our village." A white haired man replied succinctly.

Madara's eyebrow shot up in surprise; something he often wasn't. "As in the Clan of Women Warriors? That clan?"

"Yeah, that's them. It even has a genuine crest seal of the Shihoin Clan on it." The tanned man said, finally recovering from his speechless state. Hashirama showed the opened scroll to his friend, his sharp black eyes saw the Shihoin crest seal on the bottom of the scroll.

Now, that's really interesting!

Madara himself never met them in person or in battle because they lived outside the Uchiha Clan territory. However, in the past, the members of his clan had skirmishes a few times with them. The Shihoin kunoichis often out-evaded them and on rare occasion when they were cornered by them, they were able to kill or injure his clan-men seriously enough for escape.

He heard a little about this clan. They was famous for producing the strongest female ninjas and the best sensors in the Shinobi world, not even Tobirama's chakra sensing ability was to match. He suspected that the chakra-sensing ability was a main part of their bloodline limit.

He even heard stories from others that the Shihoin kunoichis were very difficult to capture and ambush by the enemies due to their extremely long range chakra-sensing ability. He knew that these stories held a grain of salt to it in reality. They had somewhat been similar to the Hyuuga Clan in a term of the long range scouting ability.

The members of the Shihoin Clan would be the perfect bodyguard for clients, and sensors or scouts to alert the allies of the enemies in the advanced warning.

And not to mention their stealth and fighting prowess was no slouch either, he heard from his information source that the Shihoin kunoichis could kill the members of their hated barbaric enemy; the Kaguya Clan. It's an impressive feat seeing as the imperative defense of their bloodline limit is Shikotsumyaku.

They were also renowned for their beauty and keen intelligence rivaling the Nara Clan.

Though Madara heard a nasty rumor that the Shihoin kunoichis often seduced the unsuspecting males in their disguises and stole their seed in order to produce more offsprings. Hence they were nicknamed Scarlet Witches derogatorily by the males from other clans.

They were very reclusive people to meet face to face with an outsider, but are often seen doing missions requested by rich people.

And now, this infamous Clan of the Women Warriors wants to join their village? His lip curled upward into a familiar smirk, tinged with a bit of anticipated excitement.

Oh, it's going to be _very_, very interesting, as well as fun to meet the Shihoin Clan in the flesh.

Meanwhile across the table, the small Owl summon with a scroll carrier attached to its back perched on top of an empty wooden chair, stared at them with its sleepy but intelligent eyes, waiting patiently for an awaiting missive.

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**A/N:** Yosh, we finally see the Senju brothers and Madara Uchiha! Oh, Madara *shaking her head*...He was really greedy for a battle, he was going to challenge the strongest Shihoin kunoichi, didn't he?

Ohh, what a interesting tidbits from Madara! We were learning bit in both good and bad about the Shihion Clan from the outsider's view. And yes, this chapter focused on that time the founders invited the various clans to join Konoha. You'll see them in these future drabbles. *wink wink*

Update at 01/11: Many thanks to my beta-reader, AshKetchumNow!

So, what did you thinking of this chapter so far? Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	5. Family

**Summary:** Masumi met her family for a first time.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Your daughter is beautiful, Michiko-sama!"

"Thank you, Kasa-chan." She could distantly hear her mother speaking warmly to a young female, apparently named Kasa.

"Oohhh!"

"What a cute baby!"

"Aw! Look at her pretty eyes! I think they're a blue-green shade." Several females of various ages hovered over the baby crib containing a three month old baby.

Their hair were different and unique shades of green. All of the green haired women sported the hime cut hairstyle which comprised of the frontal fringe covering their forehead and the cheek-length side-locks framing their faces delicately. Their eyes different shades of blue, were curiously looking at their newest member of their clan.

Michiko was watching them inspect and familiarize with her firstborn. Her daughter's chakra was very peculiar, but her clan members were ignoring that fact for the time being. It was a top priority to familiarize with their new heiress, so they could easily identify and track her chakra signature for future reference.

They talked to each other softly, mindful of their newborn heiress's sensitive hearing.

Masumi wrinkled her nose in distaste at their cooing and aw-ing sounds constantly aimed towards her, the simple action that she started regretting the moment her sensitive ears got an earful of their soft squeals and more cooing from them.

"Oh! How cute! Her nose wrinkles up!"

"Michiko-sama, are you sure that this little girl is your daughter? It seems that she's a grumpy baby. I don't remember you being grumpy when you were a kid." A cheeky female voice asked her mother.

Her mother was letting out the most beautiful and sincere laugh Masumi had ever heard in her life. Her laugh sounded like a bell-chime and the warmth of sun.

"No Asami-chan, I am sorry to inform you that this little girl is indeed my daughter." Her mother informed her, amusement laced in her voice. A round of soft chuckles emit from the other women listening to their banter.

Meanwhile, Masumi was not amused with her current situation. How embarrassing to have her aunts and female cousins cooing at her! She felt like a pretty doll put on the exhibition show for all to see. It was not fun at all.

Apparently, she had a large family consisting of many quirky female relatives and few males who visited to see their new heiress.

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**A/N:** Poor Masumi! Have a lot of the female relatives cooing over a helpless baby with a mind of the teenage was not fun at all. *laughing* Did you enjoyed a light-heart and fluffy family scene of the Shihoin Clan? I hope so. Watching out for the upcoming dabbles! *wink*

Update at 01/18: Many thanks to my betareader, AshKetchumNow!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	6. Unflappable

**Summary: **Michiko Shihoin had been seen many strange and terrible things in her short life. She was always getting along with the flow.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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She had been seen seen many strange and terrible things in her short life. She witnessed the three tailed Biju wiped out the village in a rampage once. She saw many deaths in both the allies and enemies alike. She had been seen the members of that barbaric Kaguya Clan pulling their own spine bones out of their skin and used it as the melee weapon.

Hell, she even stained her own hands with the enemies' blood.

Still, she maintained her calm, cool and collected facade to all of these events thrusting into her face.

Consequently, a green haired woman earned her moniker, _T__he Serene Lady _by her people, allies and enemies for her seemly permanent imperturbable attitude and her odd tendency to speaking gracefully whenever she was middle in the chaos of the battlefield, negotiating the agreements with the outsiders or even talking with her own clan members.

And nowadays, Michiko Shihoin, the Serene Lady and Clan Head of the Shihoin Clan was concentrating on giving a birth to her first child right now.

"Push now!"

Her older midwife was encouraging her female Clan Head of few years as soon as she saw that a baby was about to crowning, her hands ready to catch a tiny living being.

Another younger woman apparently was her midwife assistant, supported a laboring woman by holding her hand comfortably. They were both suppressing their chakra partly in order to prevent them to distract their leader's focus on giving a birth. In return, it helped them focusing on their doings without feeling the waves of the pain from the laboring women.

Panting and sweating heavily, a green haired woman grunted in agony and took a deep breathing, then pushed harder with all of her last remaining strength.

"Ga-argghhh!"

Suddenly she felt the instant relief in her staining lower part as her infant finally left out of her womb. She was letting out a mixture of relived sighing and wheezing sound. Her nursemaid massaged and patted lightly on a baby's chest, it caused a baby hiccuping and taking a first breath, then wheezing out loudly, not screaming shrilly in that way as the typical babies normally done that at a moment they took a first breath.

_Odd,_ the midwife thought as she handled the newborn with care. This baby was the quietest one ever she delivered in her midwife career. Not that she was complaining about that. It was a nice change for once in a while.

"Congratulation, Michiko-sama. You have a daughter." A forest green haired older woman smiled warmly as she cleaned off the bodily fluids and blood off the newborn heiress of the Shihoin Clan. She gently wiped a baby in a clean cloth and looked up at her Clan Head who was looking sweaty and tired, but shining with a healthy glowing that usually associated with the first time mothers.

Her hands passed her newborn daughter to Michiko who compliantly took her first born heiress in her arms. She smiled at the sight of the new mother holding her daughter for a first time.

"Thank you for delivering my daughter, Tamiko-san. Also, Kei-san I am very appreciating that you held my hand. I hope that I don't break your hand, did I?" Michiko said with a gratitude and a touch of concern.

"It's a honor to deliver the new heiress and daughter of the Shihoin Clan." Tamiko bowed her head slightly, a sign of respect to her leader as well as accepting her gratitude.

"Not all, you didn't break everything in my hand. It's my pleasure to help!" A cheery tone from her younger clan member Kei, who was happy that her Clan Head showed the concern for her well being. Like Tamiko, she bowed her head slightly to her.

They made a quick check-up on their Clan Head and new heiress for any complication rising from her labor. They were not yet taking a look at their new heiress's chakra since they still surpassed their chakra which prevent them familiarizing with her new chakra signature. There was also a custom that a new mother must be a first person to familiarizing with her newborn's chakra signature after their birth.

Once they were satisfied with the results that the mother and daughter were fine.

They both left the room heavily decorating with the seals whose purpose to ensure the newborn not feeling under the siege of the foreign chakra that might assault the newborn's not yet adjusting sensitive senses. They nodded succinctly at the two other green-haired kunoichis who currently guarded the door that they were exiting from.

The guards nodded back, acknowledging Tamiko and her assistant's presences as well as giving their permission for them to leave. With that permission, Tamiko and Kei went to meet their waiting audience for announcing the Shihoin Clan's new heiress.

At the meantime, Michiko finally had a room by all herself alone with her recently newborn daughter in her arms. Her azure blue eyes quietly took in her daughter's appearance. Her daughter had the soft hair on her head, inheriting the typical Shihoin green hair with a teal tint that was visible when a light touched upon her hair. The infant was not yet opening her eyes, her eyes still closed tightly.

Filled with the eager curiosity inwardly, she extended and honed on her daughter's chakra signature with her chakra-sensing ability.

Her eyebrows creased slightly in confusion in a rare moment as she encountered the unusual large and dense amount of yin chakra in her daughter's chakra system.

_Why did her daughter have so much and denser than normal yin chakra?_ She wondered about this mystery. She knew that have an high amount of a yin chakra usually showing a sign of high intelligence in a person.

It was very common occurrences among her clan members. They were born with the high and equal amount of yin and yang chakra, their chakra reserve were larger than normal but lesser than the Uzumaki clan members' massive chakra reserve, though the Uzumaki clan members had more yang chakra than yin chakra. The Shihoin Clan have a near perfect chakra control over their larger than normal chakra reserve, a side effects resulting from have their bloodline limit.

Useful, but it was not that what Michiko focused on, instead she paid attention on this unusual and dense yin chakra in her daughter's chakra system.

But this was not normal because this yin chakra in her newborn was supposing not to feel denser and compressing in that way. A green haired woman probed this mystery deeply and farther extensively by using her other ability to supplement her bloodline limit.

Until she found the source of this mystery.

Her calm facade slipped for a moment as her eyes went wide in astonishment briefly, she was caught off by what she found the source in her daughter's dense yin chakra.

As you see, she was born with a very rare ability, that it only manifested once in the Shihoin Clan every few hundred years.

That ability allowed her to sense extensively at their soul essence that made up of their being and was a source of the yin chakra. She could tell the difference between the newborns and adults' souls by just sensing their soul essence. A newborn was usually born with a blank soul waiting to be filling by the world. Just like a blank canvas waited for to be filling with the colors.

In other hands, the adult's soul already filled with the personalty, experiences, emotions and memories. It also affected the yin chakra's subtle properties as well.

Over a time, a newborn's soul essence matured and expanded along with the new experiences being learned, the ability to thinking and comprehending the world, and developing the unique personality of its own when the owner got older.

Her clan referred this ability as _'Tamashī no Zettai-tekina Shinri' _for its ability to peering at the person's soul literally and figuratively.

In other words, Michiko could see their soul essence literally and figuratively by sensing and looking at their chakra extensively. As in, the chakra of the person was the window to the person's soul from her view point, just like the proverb said about the eyes was the window to the soul.

And not mentioning that she was also a master of sensing the emotions in the living beings' chakra. No matter the people tried to hide their emotions physically and mentally, they still couldn't control and hide their chakra frequency that synced with their feelings and intents unconsciously.

This ability to sensing the emotions in their chakra was also part of the Shihoin bloodline limit and largely behind a secret why the Shihoin kunoichis were so difficult to be ambush and capture by the enemies. Everyone in her clan could easily sense the hostile intent from the hidden enemies far way from them without seeing them physically. It also was impossible for the enemies lying to them.

In other words, her clan was a full of the empaths and walking lie detectors.

Coupling with her full mastery of the Shihoin bloodline limit and her rare ability to see the person's soul essence, she could verified what exactly she sense in her daughter.

She still stared at her sleeping daughter, who somehow had the mature essence of the older soul. With a full access to her intact memories, the emotions and personality of the mature soul intact.

It was not everyday you found out that your child is a reincarnation of someone else. If any people were putting themselves in her place like that, they would be freaking out by this tidbit.

But a new green haired mother was not ordinary by the normal standard, instead Michiko managed to stay unflappable and went along with the flow nonchalantly especially her firstborn daughter was the mature soul reborn into her infant body.

"My my, it seems that there's more than meet the eyes about you, my dear daughter." She whispered softly at her still sleeping infant.

Fact was stranger than fiction, indeed.

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**A/N**: Wooho! That's a longest update ever i have to write down! *wiping the sweats from my forehead.*

Ta-da! That's how Michiko Shihoin knew about her daughter's being reincarnation of someone else. That's a major twist and difference why this story was so different from other typical stories where the canon character and self insert charcters reborn and nobody in the family knew that this person reborn in their family.

And no, she did not know that her daughter was from the future.

Ohh, We finally learnt who Sakura's new mother was! So, Michiko was an empath and unflappable woman by the nature. Not mentioning that she was the current Clan Head of the Shihoin Clan. Heh, she was totally cool with this reincarnation thing. There's a big two questions about her. One, will she going to let her daughter know about her reincarnation situation? Two, Are she going to exploit her daughter's future knowlegde if she made aware of her daughter's from the future?

Mmm, that's good questions. You will find out more what's happening in the future drabbles! *wink wink* Beside, I hope you like the depth of how the Shihoin bloodline limit working. Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!

Translation: _Soul's Absolute Truth_


	7. Universe

**Summary**: In her previous lifetime, she was a bookworm and had a passion for devouring the new knowledge. That trait carried over into her current lifetime.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Michiko held her daughter's small hand in her hand, guiding her though the maze of the ancestral clan home.

"Mother, where exactly are we going?" A six years old green haired girl asked impatiently, noticing the unfamiliar hallway that she never visited before. She lived there in this ancestral home for a six year since her rebirth, had been exploring this home there. Yet she wasn't aware of this hallway, it was a likely possibility that she haven't cross that hallway yet. She was pretty sure that her home had a plenty of the secret passageways and hidden rooms.

"Be patient, daughter." Her mother reminded her gently with a boundless patience and of course, ever-present amusement as they continued to navigate the seemly endless maze of the hallway.

Until they encountered the large doors heavily decorating with the folk arts of the various owls, crescent moons and maple trees beautifully interweaving seamlessly. It was at least seven feet tall.

Masumi blinked at the beautifully designed doors, looking up at her mother confusedly.

The azure blue eyes twinkled with mischief, Michiko was waving her hand, silently asking her daughter moving back. A little girl moved back obediently, curious what her mother was planning to do next.

The Clan Head placed her hands on the each door, her hands on the two crescent moons that was mirroring vertically and parallel to her chest height, gently releasing the short burst of her chakra. The tiny thousand interconnecting seals appeared and creeping along the maple trees, the owls and crescent moons, glowing softly in a blue light. It hummed lightly with a mystical power.

_Click!_

The doors unlocked as soon as the glowing tiny seals disappeared like the smoke fading away. Michiko pushed forward to open the unlocked doors to reveal what was inside the mysterious room. Her daughter curiously followed her inside this room.

She took in what she saw, then her blue-green eyes went wider and wider until they were already to pop out of her sockets. Her mouth opened slightly as Masumi stared dazedly at the colossal room.

"This is the Library of Benzaiten, our finest creation ever our founder created since the Sage of the Sixth Paths' passing." His mother proclaimed proudly, preening in her family legacy. She was spreading her arms halfway in open air as if she was looking like about introducing her daughter to someone.

In her mind, Masumi inwardly coiled in shock and awe. As in the long lost and fabled Library of Benzaiten? That world's supposed largest library ever in existence? There were the hundreds of myths and legends in the Shinobi World. The fabled Library of Benzaiten was one among the myths and legends.

According the myth, she recalled from her previous lifetime as Sakura, the Library of Benzaiten was originally opening for all the people who wished to learn its knowledge what this library offered.

But when the people started to desire its knowledge for the malicious purpose to start the war. The guardians who were overseeing this library, had no choice but forced to burn down the vast library to the ground in order to preventing the wicked people misuse its knowledge.

No physical trace of this library left behind, the guardians made sure of it. All of the precious and valuable scrolls in that library were reducing into the ashes and lost forever, never seen ever again. The guardians, whom were responsible for setting the fire on their precious library, went to hiding and fading into the sands of the time.

Apparently, the part of that myth regarding its untimely demise wasn't true, as she saw the intact Library of Benzaiten here in her own eyes.

It was clear that they moved the scrolls to another unknown location in secret, and likely to burned the library building down in order to cement the belief that the Library of Benzaiten destroyed by the fire and lost forever.

That unknown location happened to be the ancestral home island of The Shihoin Clan, whose was the descendants of the guardians of that fabled library and still continue to overseeing this fabled library to this day.

Wow, That sight of the fabled library blew her mind over several times. Repeatedly.

Meanwhile the older green haired woman was enjoying her heiress's reactions. Her daughter's awed reaction to this treasure was amusing and perfectly normal. She nostalgically remembered her own similar reaction when her late mother first time introduced her to this massive library in her childhood. It still marveled her to this day, and she never got tired of this library.

As per the Shihoin tradition, all of the Shihoin children must be taught to read and write as soon as they started to walk. Not surprising, the people of Shihoin Clan had an extremely high intelligence and apt to learn faster.

Once they were reaching their sixth years, their parent took them to the Library of the Benzaiten as a part of their rich heritage.

That's exactly what Michiko did this with her heiress in the same way as her precursors done with their children for the centuries since the creation of the Shihoin Clan.

In a meantime, Masumi was too busy to gape at the massive library.

S-so huge! That's a largest library ever she saw in her short life or her previous lifetime. It was even larger than the Konoha's Archive Library and General Library combined! She was sure that if Orochimaru was in her place, he would be orgasming right on the spot. Eewww! She did not need to imagine that picture in her head. Better not thinking of that pale traitor from her old life. She shifted her attention from her thinking, looking around the library.

There must be thousand and thousand scrolls and books in this room! Attempting to read all of these would take a several lifetimes to complete to read all of these scrolls. Most of them were, from what her blue-green eyes could see, looking very antique and well maintained. They were neatly cataloging in the rows of the countless hundreds bookcases. This colossal room apparently had enough space to contain the immense collection of the scrolls and books.

And yet this room still had an available spare for more to add. Masumi had a slightly suspicion that her ancestors crafted the space-time fuinjustu seals on this room to create the dimension pocket to accommodating the ever-growing collection of the scrolls and books.

"It's magnificent, isn't it?" Michiko remarked at her playfully.

Masumi still was tongue-tied, instead just simply nodded.

At the same time, her inner bookworm drooled and convulsed simultaneously all at once in the sheer bliss at the sight of a such beautiful treasure whispering of the immerse knowledge that holding the secrets of the universe.

* * *

**A/N: **Ho oh oh! Not expecting that the Shihoin Clan are appreciating the books and education, did you? *wink* Of course, this clan was not all about being brawns. Being smart was important, too. Maybe something was doing with the women holding the major power in this clan. The women tended to prefer the smarts and subtlety over the brawn and brute strength that the men usually favoring heavily.

And not mentioning the Shihoin women are capable of reading and writing which are very rare for the women in this Clan Warring Era. Only the women of the noble families and few exceptional females of other clans (except the Uzumaki Clan, since they are specializing in the sealing art, which require the calligraphy. It would means it required both of the males and females of the Uzumaki Clan to read in the advanced level.)

The Library of Benzaiten was the equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. Benzaiten was the Japanese Buddhist goddess of everything that flows: water, words, speech, eloquence, music and by extension, knowledge. That's a reason why I use this name intended for the library. Both were also meeting their untimely demise in the fires, though for different reasons.

Its concept of the Library of Benzaiten was also inspired and based on by _Avatar: The Last Airbender character;_ Wan Shi Tang's Spirit Library and another fanfiction story, _T__he Raikage_ written by Aragon Potter.

I hope that you like my concept of the Shihoin Clan possessing the legendary library. Anyway, please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	8. Friend

**Summary**: Sometimes, a strong friendship was creating through the crazy challenge issued by other person.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

"You are blind."

"So what? Are you going to stare me now? Cause' if you're staring at me, I'll beat you up." The blank milky blue eyes glared at her. Oh god, this blind girl had a sassy personality of Anko.

"S-sorry. I'm just surprised. uh, what's your name?" A six and half years old heiress was a little embarrassing over her unseemly rude statement.

"Shihoin Ishiko, you?" A blind asparagus green-haired girl, now named Ishiko said testily.

"Shihoin Masumi."

Her irritated expression morphed into a surprise expression.

"Ah, so you're a princess of our clan." She said with a slightly surprise, but there was also disdaining tone underneath her speaking.

Her disdaining tone made a teal-tinted green haired girl scowled, and spoke with the bold defiance,"So what? what if I am?"

"Heh! Good, I preferred a not so wimpy princess-" "Hey-!" "...It would be very embarrassing to have a wimp being our princess." Ishiko finished nonchalantly, not bothered by another girl's indignant exclamation.

"I'm not a wimp!" She said indignantly, her eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Oh yeah? How about eating the hottest pepper?" Ishiko challenged her boldly.

"..." An heiress did not saying any words, because she wasn't going to sink low as taking a bait from a little brat. Besides, she disliked the spicy foods.

"Ha, you are really wimping out, are you?"A blind girl added a fuel into the fire. A subtle message underneath her taunting implied that the Shihoin heiress was a coward.

Now, it jabbed Masumi's inner kunoichi as well as her pride. She really hated to be called a coward by others in her previous lifetime. Evidently, in her current lifetime her pride questioned by a little blind girl. Her pride was winning over over her dislike of the spicy food.

Masumi said with a childish anger and defiance, "Fine! I'll do it."

After all, her pride as the strong woman was on the line!

Ishiko just grinned victoriously at her acceptance of the challenge that she issued to her future Clan Head.

A few hours passed later...at the healer's infirmary.

"Okay, I take my words back. You have to be crazy to eat that jalapeno! I don't think that you take me that seriously, Princess." A grudged admiration clearly heard from her tone, Ishiko was secretly impressed by Masumi's guts to eat the jalapeno raw several times in one sitting.

Then, she winced a bit at a thought of eating the lot of the raw jalapeno in one sitting. That crazy deed led Masumi right into the healer's infirmary for treating her stomach ache.

"..."

A blind girl frowned as she heard her saying something indistinctly.

"What did you say?"

"...I really hate spicy food." Masumi repeated slowly, this time it was loud enough for her to hear clearly.

"Ah, sorry to force you to eat food that you hate. I'd said that you really are not wimpy." She said grinning, not really sorry at all.

"Gee, thanks." She grumbled. Her tongue was still feeling the agonized burning sensation from that jalapeno incident. She hoped that she was not going to eat that green menace ever again.

They both grew quiet as they ran out of what they want to say to each other.

A silence passed for a moment.

"Hey, Princess?"

Masumi replied snappily. "What?"

"Are you going to be kunoichi?" She asked, not wasting her time on beating around the bush.

The Shihoin heiress took back and blinked owlishly at her strange question, then said, "Yes, I am planning to. Why?"

A grin slowly formed on Ishiko's face. Masumi had a slight foreboding that she knew what was a blind girl going to say next.

"Well, I'm going to be the strongest and kicking-ass blind kunoichi in the world!" A blind six and half years old girl shouted out shamelessly and thrusting her clenching hand up in the air.

Yep, her loud declaration reminded her of Naruto and his screaming proclamation about his dream to be Hokage. She smiled at the parallel between Ishiko and Naruto. They both really believed that they could reach their dream despite their disadvantaged situation. She started to feel inspired by her blind clan member's stubborn belief in her ability to reach her dream.

Unfortunately the moment ruined at the moment as a chorus of the older female voices from the various rooms connecting the infirmary room hollered back, "Ishiko-chan! Watch your language!" "Quiet!" "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep here!" "Oi, keep your voice down please!"

Ishiko just laughed boisterously. Masumi rolled her eyes in exasperation, her lip twitched to curl upward.

Yes, she was given a second chance to change the future for better. She believed that she could do it!

Unbeknownst to Masumi, she just found her future right hand bodyguard and loyal friend in Ishiko Shihoin in the upcoming future.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh! Don't expecting that Masumi made a friend with a blind sassy girl, did you? The future Clan Head need a right hand person, right? I thought of what a kind of a right hand person is. That person should not afraid to speak out his or her mind out. A person must be tough and take no crap from everybody. And not mentioning that she or he desired to be strong ninja, love to challenge others to fight her or him.

I created a character for that position; Ishiko Shihoin whose first name translated Stone Child, and personality was inspired and based on Toph Beifong from Avatar:The Last Airbender. I really like Toph because she was strong earthbender and believed in herself despite her blindness.

Like Toph, Ishiko was also blind. Her blindness will not slow down or stop her, in fact in the opposite way, the Shihoin bloodline limit allow her to became kunoichi. How did she work around her handicap as kunoichi? I'm sure you probably could guess what kind of kunoichi Ishiko was based her namesake.

I hope you like my Ishiko Shihoin character. Anyway, please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	9. Displeasure

**Summary: **Masumi and Ishiko should be careful when they were within reach of the fragile things.**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

_Clang!_

_Crash!_ The solid high-pitched sounds of the porcelain that shattered when it impacted on the floor, echoed throughout the occupied room.**  
**

The little two nearly seven years old girls stopped dead in terror upon hearing these sounds. The dreaded feelings formed in their stomachs.

Everybody became motionless in horror at a sight of the shattered pieces of their Clan Head's favorite and expensive porcelain vase on the wooden floor. Was it just their imagination or the temperature of this room that everyone occupied plummeted down in few degrees?

Their blue eyes slowly raised upward from a ground to see an older green-haired woman's reaction to a sight of her beloved vase being broken.

Her body went rigid, Michiko's face was frozen with a serene smile. Her body language didn't reveal her feeling at all. But on their sensitive sensory radar suggested to say otherwise, everyone including the children could feel the agitated movements of her chakra.

It was clear to them that Michiko was not happy. At all.

"...Yui-san, Please call Hinasi-san for clean this mess." She calmly asked her clan member, Yui. Her deceptively calm voice snapped Yui out of her immobile state.

"O-of course, Michiko-sama!" Yui stuttered nervously as she made a beeline for the door to escaping from the volatile situation that was about happening here in this room.

A green haired woman continued serenely with her sickly sweet smile on her composed facade, "Masumi-chan, Ishiko-chan, I believe that we didn't have the opportunity to review the etiquette lesson_ together_, shall we?"

Her soul-penetrating azure blue eyes pinned the petrified children down on the floor.

Sweating profusely, Masumi and Ishiko squeaked in fear, their faces were pale at a thought of the Clan Head gave out her infamous etiquette lesson to them as the punishment.

Asami looked at their small shivering forms of the heiress and blind girl, feeling sorry for them invoking The Serene Lady of the Shihoin Clan's rare displeasure.

* * *

**A/N:** Poor children, they should be careful when they are within the range of the fragile things. Ah, it's normal that the typical children break their parent's precious fragile things. Ah, the misadventure of the childhoods...

I hope that you enjoyed this one of Masumi and Ishiko's many misadventures throughout their childhood and beyond. Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	10. Tale

**Summary: **Masumi was shocked to find out that her mother knew her supposed hidden secret for years.

****Disclaimer:**** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

An icy cold sensation crept on her skin.

Masumi's inside went cold.

Her mother knew! She knew that her daughter was a reincarnation of someone else for seven years.

Seven years since her birth.

She inwardly panicked at a thought of her mother knowing her secret for that long. She didn't realize that she started to breathe faster and harsher, her blood rushed and roared in her ears. She felt a room became too small which made her feeling claustrophobic. Her heart was escalating too fast, feeling like it was about exploding in her chest cavity. Her chakra frequency went wild in an uncontrollable and agitated manner.

Then, a warm hand pressed and rubbed soothingly in a circular movement against her petite back. A familiar wave of her soothing chakra washed over her trembling form.

"Calm down, daughter. You're hyperventilating. Take a deep breath. Breathe in. Exhale out."

She struggled to swallow the needed air into her lungs. She gasped and then, took a slow breath in. She exhaled. She repeated the breathing process several times until her heart subsided down and her breathing went back to normal. A room felt now much more spacious ever as same as before.

Her chakra calmed down slightly as it synched with her heart and emotion. But her chakra remained tense especially her panic was now under her control and wasn't completely gone.

Her blue-green eyes blinked and went back to focusing, she found herself embracing in her mother's arms. A comfortable but tense silence was over their heads.

"You knew?" Her voice, for a first time, was meek.

"About what?"

"Me being reborn as your daughter." Her blue-green downcast eyes avoided the eye contract with her mother. Her voice was trembling slightly.

A green haired mother sighed softly, her eyes softened with compassion. Her always confident and strong daughter, was now reduced into a scared child in her arms. At a sight of her child in that state stirred her motherly instinct. No mothers wanted to see their child in any forms of pain.

"Masumi, Look at me." Michiko called her name firmly, causing her daughter looking up at her azure blue eyes.

"I know that you are afraid of me rejecting you, just because you are stealing my daughter's body and deceiving me into thinking of you as my daughter? No. I am perfectly aware that you tried to keep your secret under a wrapping. I understood your reason and did what you done in your situation if I had been in your place. You're always my daughter no matter what, even you are a reincarnation of another person. I still love my dear daughter whatever she was reincarnated or not." She said. Her voice was unwavering and full of the motherly love.

There was a silence between them as a teal-tinted green haired girl took what her mother says to her. Secretly, her heart rejoiced silently at her mother's genuine acceptance of her as her daughter.

She was thinking of Michiko as her third mother in figure because just like her Tsunade-shishou, Michiko was always expressing her strong faith in her. She was encouraging her to reach her potentials in the fullest. She would lose her bearings if had her mother been not her steady pillar of support.

"I...Thank you...I don't know what I want to say, Mother."

So many things in her mind that she wanted to share with her mother, she, at a moment, did not know which things she want to say to her.

"Perhaps...you can start with your name that you once had in your previous life and who you are." Michiko kindly suggested. She herself couldn't help but excited and curious at the same time about her daughter's previous lifetime. It was a such rare and special opportunity for someone in her place to get to know the genuine reincarnated person with the memories and personality intact.

Masumi nodded in acceptance, but uncertain about its consequence of telling her mother about her being from the future. Her mother would instantly know that she held back something if she was omitting out that part about her true origin in her story. After all, she was her mother, whose are very perspective when it came to her firstborn child as well as she was a master of her bloodline limit along with her special ability.

Michiko sensed her uncertainty in her chakra.

"That's all right, daughter. You can trust me. As far as I know, no one was aware that you are a reincarnation of someone else beside me, Mai-chan and Asami-chan. I do not inform the elders or anyone about a true source of your dense yin chakra. And I will not say anything what you told me here to everyone without your consent." An older green haired mother reassured sincerely, releasing her iron tight control over her chakra.

That action would be ensuring her daughter feeling her sincerity from her chakra.

The seven years old green haired girl went stiff when she heard her mother mentioning the two people else beside her, knew her secret.

She then relaxed slightly upon hearing who these two people were. These two people that her mother mentioned, were well known to her especially they were closest to her mother more than anyone in her clan. They were the honored and trustworthy women. So, she trusted her mother's choice in the people knew her secret.

She also trusted her mother because she could tell that her mother spoke a truth from sensing her chakra.

She couldn't keep her secret alone and forever, her secret became more and more like a burden pressing heavily on her heart. Confiding in her mother who was compassionate and understanding, capable to keep her secret from anyone in her over seven years would lighten her burden. She felt like she wasn't alone on her secret anymore.

It would be requiring a lot of faith and bravery to tell the Clan Head who might exploit her for a malicious purpose.

But her mother was...different. Her mother did not treat her like a weapon for her clan as other clan usually treated their members as their weapons and canon-fodders. As far as she knew, her mother was treating everyone in her clan like a family. She could trust her mother with a full depth of her secret.

Her decision formed and solidified with a strong conviction. If an older woman noticed a resolute feeling emitting from her daughter's chakra, she did not comment on it.

"Was this room soundproof?"

"Yes, I already activated the soundproof seal just right before you came in." The Clan Head answered.

Huh, her mother was seemly always knowing everything in advance when it came to her.

"Ah, that's good." Sure, she wanted her mother to know her full story. It didn't mean that she wanted others to know the truth about her. She preferred the less people knew about her. "...I think you should sit more comfortable because it's a long story."

"I have a plenty of time on my hands."

They shifted their bodies more comfortable sitting on the tatami floor and faced each other in their fronts. Her mother looked at her expectantly, her ears ready to listen.

The seven years old heiress took a deep breath in a preparation for a long speech, and exhaled deeply. "I was once known as Haruno Sakura, you see, I'm from..."

Masumi, formerly Sakura, began to tell her mother an extraordinary tale about a pink-haired girl with a humble beginning from the future who was born and grew up in her not yet existing beloved village; she started out her ninja career with the lazy teacher and two ninja in the training males who bought the avalanche of change into the Ninja World.

* * *

**A/N**: Yay, I reached 10th chapter of Shatterpoint! Aw, what a such touching moment of mother-daughter! Now Michiko officially knew of her daughter and her secret including that future part! Are you imaging how relieved Masumi feel when she was not alone on her secret anymore? I would be relieved if i was in her shoes.

*gasping in surprise* What? Asami and this mysterious Mai person also were on it, too?! Who is this Asami Shihoin person whom mentioned occasionally in the previous chapters? And who the heck this Mai person is?!

Ohh...the mysteries got deeper and intriguing more ever! Dun! Dun! I guess that we had to find out how these two people knew her secret in the upcoming drabbles. *wink wink*

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!

Translation Note: Shishou was a honorific referring a martial art instructor and masters who specializing in the traditional Japanese arts and crafts. It had similar meaning to sensei. It roughly translated a master. Tatami was a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms.


	11. Owlet

**Summary:** Masumi summoned her first summon.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

"Kuchiyose no Justu!" She pushed the necessary amount of her chakra to summon her first summon. Her hand slapped on the ground. A complex summoning seals underneath her hand formed and flared with her chakra.

_Poof! _A small white smoke puffed along with a popping sound. It was dispersing quickly and revealing what a smoke hid from her blue-green eyes._  
_

"..."

Masumi stared at a fluffy gray human fist-sized creature sitting on the ground. It appeared that it was still in the infant development. The avian creature stirred awake from its slumber, opening its black big and round pupils with the yellow irises. It blinked its eyes to adjust to the sudden lights. It yawned with its sharp beaks wide open.

_Clink_. Its beak made a soft clinking sound when it was shut close.

Its sleepy-looking eyes refocused on its new environment and fell upon her.

The green-haired nine years old girl wasn't fooled by its appearance. It had an intelligent glint behind this creature's eyes.

"My name is Shihoin Masumi. What is your name?" She asked it politely. It was important to make a good impression on her first summon who will be her personal message carrier for a rest of her lifetime. Have a bad impression on her potential message carrier would make it difficult to communicate and bond with her summon.

It blinked slowly and tilted its head upward slightly, eying its new summoner who was looking back at it expectantly. Its action by tilting its head and its round sleepy eyes might make this avian baby cute, had it not been for this creature opened its beaks to about say next.

"Taidana. How troublesome. All things I want to do is take a nap." A creature now named Taidana drawled in a masculine voice.

He promptly went back sleeping.

Her green eyebrow twitched in irritation at a familiar phrase speaking from her owlet summon, whose its personality and mannerism resembled the lazy genius that she once knew.

* * *

**A/N:** Masumi's first summon was an owl baby! Heh, it looked like that her first owlet was a owlet version of Shikamaru Nara. I intended their first owl summon's personality opposite to the summoner's personality. Just making their relationship between the summoner and animal summon more interesting. :)

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!

Translation: Taidana translated Lazy.


	12. Back

**Summary:** Masumi and Ishiko's friendship proved strong when they fought against their enemies.**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: slightly violence and little swearing.

* * *

"On your left!" A voice called out from the quite some distance but it's enough for Masumi heard clearly and acted on its warning automatically. Her sensitive sensory radar already alerted her that an enemy was within her blind spot.

Turning her body around, she dodged a lash aiming to her left side in a light speed reflex at a meantime as she delivered a punishing chakra-enchanced side-kick at her bone-sword enemy wielder. A Kaguya male was too second late to stop or avoid her lightning-fast incoming attack.

Her foot met the right side of his chest covering with his bones, her body shifted quickly and she then forcibly slammed him down on the soil with a burst of superhuman strength in her extending leg.

_Ka-boom! _The solid surface of the earth trembled under her mighty strength.

A large crater crackled and formed underneath him, the dusts kicking up in the air.

A powerful impact of her attack was causing him cried out in pain as his supposed impervious bone armor buckled under the titanic pressure. It broke down into the shattered pieces and pressed against his chest inwardly. The one of the jagged bone pieces pieced his heart, instantly killing him.

The fourteen years old heiress removed her downed foot away a dead man's chest.

One man down. One more to go.

Meanwhile, in few seconds earlier a few distance away from Masumi, a blind fourteen years old was still in middle of fighting her two enemies currently. She had a bit trouble because the enemies, since she could tell from a combination of her bloodline limit and her seismic sensing from her earth chakra-enhanced feet connecting on the soil, were twins. They tag-teamed and engaging with her at the same time.

_Well,_ she thought as she shifted her body to avoid the lethal, sharp bones and maintained her feet touching on the ground continuously. If someone saw her dodging that way, they might think that she danced around the two enemies gracefully, not a single scratch visible on her person.

The Kaguya twins were frustrated by their blind enemy's nimbleness, trying to increase their swings faster in order to hit on an elusive Shihoin girl.

_I should separate them earlier and take out one by one._ She mused, calmly looking for the opening in her enemies.

Thankfully, a slight tremor, that Masumi created, felt by them and caused the twin pausing for a second.

Ishiko seized the precious second as soon as they were distracting by the tremors.

Grunting loudly, she powerfully stomped her bare left foot on the ground. A strong pulse of chakra second later. The dozen of stone pillars blasted out of the ground, knocked her two Kaguya enemies off from their feet in order to give a more breathing room for her.

They had to distract their Kaguya enemies from noticing their hidden third teammate sneaking into their stronghold to rescue the princess hostage. They used a direct combat tactic to entice the battle-loving Kaguya members to fighting them. The Kaguya clan had a reputation to prioritize the fighting first rather than the missions given to them when they contracted with their enemies.

There were four males of the Kaguya clan and the dozen samurais guarding the princess who currently held as a hostage by the enemy lord. The Shihoin Clan was formally requested by the lord whose his daughter was kidnapped by his enemy. Rescuing his daughter was his simple demand. The payment was generous. So, the Shihoin Clan agreed to send the team consisting of three talented women to complete this rescue mission.

Shizuka Shihoin, their third teammate whose was very good at sneaking into the enemy territory without caught by others, would slip into the enemy lord's stronghold.

Ishiko and Michiko must take on each two of them themselves. Normally it would be suicidal to fight the two strong ninjas themselves especially they were from the Kaguya Clan. But this duo was not ordinary kunoichis, they were powerful enough to fight against the multiple enemies.

_No more playing with you! Time to go all out! _A blind girl grinned manically, she was so going to owe her friend a drink later for this.

The brown-haired twins felt uneasy when they saw a slightly maniacal grin forming on their enemy's face. Their uneasiness soon provided that they were right. Their visions were bombed with the sight of the several large rocks propelling right at their persons.

Meanwhile, Masumi jumped out of a large crater. Suddenly a third man appeared in a front of Masumi out of nowhere.

"Die! You whore!" A male snarled angrily at a green-haired heiress, his teeth bared and his eyes lusted for her blood. He came back from a crash site where she sent him flying to with her vicious punch earlier. He was just arriving on time to witness his clan member met his demise causing by the Shihoin kunoichi. He was going to kill that Shihoin woman for his kin's death!

He threw himself toward a green haired girl. Totally setting on his intention to kill her prevented him to notice the stray incoming toward him.

Then, a stray large rock made a loud and rather painful smack sound as soon as it came into contact with his side. He cried out in pained surprise. The force of the unexpected collision sent him flying for a second time. Again.

He ended up sprawling on the ground a bit dazed.

"Thanks! Asparagus-chan!" Masumi shouted, grinning.

Ishiko answered back, "You're welcome, Princess!"

The two young Shihoin kunoichi resumed to continue their battles. They were always kept watch out their back whenever they fought together or separately against the multiple opponents.

* * *

**A/N:** Whew! It is my first time to write a fighting scene. This time, this chapter focused on how Ishiko and Masumi showing their friendship by watching their back when they fight. And that nickname bantering, too. Yes, Masumi still have her superhuman strength and medical abilities intact thanking to her intact memories. I love a concept of the duo team consisting of the strong and kick-ass Ishiko and Michiko defeat the big bad men of the Kaguya Clan by themselves. I'm sure that you like that concept, too. *wink*

What do you thinking of this fighting scene? I hope that it was clear enough for you understand and enjoy the fighting scene.

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	13. Solution

**Summary:** Sometimes, Listening a woman's answer was helping to end all the arguments that they debated over for days.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

"Why not both of you became co-hokages over this village?" Ichiko suggested, already tired of the argument between Hashirama and Madara. They argued over who became a Hokage for days.

"..." They gaped at the blind woman in stunned, speechless shock as if she suddenly spouted the two heads. It would be hilarious to see a sight of Madara blinked owlishly, and Hashirama opened his mouth like a opened-mouth fish, his face was star-struck.

Ishiko furrowed her eyebrows in discomfort, feeling their eyes on her. Their stares made her feel like that she was a messiah fall out of the heaven or something. Or maybe she could be wrong?

"What? I thought it's making sense since your clans create this village together. Gee, you men like to make it so complicated." A blind woman told them snappily in defense.

Hashirama tempted to bash his head on the wall. Repeatedly. It was so simple! So simple idea even they haven't thought of that before! It might help to lessen the tension between Senju and Uchiha clans. It easily appealed the other resident clans that the two strongest men working together to watch over them. Yes, that concept of the co-hokages could kill two birds with one stone!

"It could be working..." Madara muttered thoughtfully, his hand on his chin and his other arm crossing over his chest. That idea was kicking his genius mind into high gears.

"That's a brilliant idea! Only if I wasn't married to Mito-chan, I could hug and kiss you for that!" Hashirama exclaimed in a sheer happiness, so happy that they finally found a way to keep everyone happy.

"Ew! No thanks! I'd prefer that your kid named after me, Sunny." The asparagus-green haired woman said halfheartedly and at a same time, she was grossing out by his exclamation.

"Done!" Hashirama said happily. Ishiko nearly choked on her own saliva in shock.

"W-what? I-I'm just kidding! I don't want your snotty brat named after me! you Sunny idiot!" She spluttered indigently at a grinning man.

Meanwhile, Masumi stared at her blind friend who still bickering with a tanned man, shaking her head in exasperated disbelief. Only Ichiko could come up with a simple, plain solution to solve the complicated problem.

* * *

**A/N: **Ta-da, you readers want to have an intersection between the Konoha creators and the Shihoin women? Now you get this scene of Ishiko conversing with Hashirama and Madara along Masumi!

Lol, Ishiko was simple person by a nature. She usually preferred a straightforward and simple approach to deal with the problem. She hated to think about the complicated things especially political stuffs. Just her presence alone could make another flip of the butterfly: she had done something no one manage to do that, not even Hashirama; she was just making Madara became co-hokage with Hashirama. That was another plot twist.

The idea of co-hokages over the Konoha was not new. Its concept was inspired by another fanfiction story,_ Era of the Warring States_ written by Angelbloodlover. This story was very good and unique even it had a lot of angst. If you like an idea of female!Shisui reborn in the Clan Warring Era. Then, I would recommend you to read there.

I hope that you like the dynamic intersection between Ishiko, Hashirama and Madara! Anyway, please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	14. Headache

**Summary: **Masumi was thinking that her best friend would be the death of her.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: A bit swearing.

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"Sunny."

That's a first word ever a blind Shihoin kunoichi said to the men since the long negotiation meeting with Masumi Shihoin regarding the housing placement and other subjects was over.

"Pardon me?" Hashirama blinked in confusion.

"Your chakra. You felt like sunny." Ishiko told him straightforwardly. Wow, that Ishiko woman was bold enough to say that to the world's strongest ninja. Madara was secretly impressed by her guts, and intrigued by her unusual ability to describe the person's chakra feel like.

Hashirama was seemly not offended and grinned, "Thank you."

Ishiko lifted her arm, pointed her finger at the white-haired man. He raised his eyebrow in question.

"Ice-hole." Scratching that previous statement, that Ishiko had the steel balls to say that to Tobirama's face. Masumi nearly palmed her face in disbelieving exasperation. Mai just raised her eyebrow in silent amusement. Sacha almost snorted with a mixture of incredulity and laughter. Eyes wide, Yosumi looked at her blind fellow clan-member horrifyingly; she couldn't believe that Ishiko saying that crude to him!

Hashirama almost looked scandalized at how this woman speaking to a man in a vulgar manner. He was raising taught that the women should not use a vulgar language.

Madara had to cough lightly in order to hide his sniggering at a pun to describe Tobirama's character perfectly and so accurately. Oh~! He like that blind spunky woman already! He was so going to remember that priceless expression on that bastard's face in his mind forever.

Tobirama scowled at her. His red eyes tried to burrow the holes in a blind woman's head. She would be dead several times over, had not she been a member of the Shihoin Clan that was going to join their village.

Ishiko shifted her hand, and now pointed at a black, spiky longed-haired man. "And you! you shall be called Sparky."

Now, his sniggering had ended abruptly. It was not so funny anymore. Tobirama now smirked at him, obviously pleased that he wasn't only one have that humiliating label bestowing by her.

"What did you call me?" Madara seethed in outrage, his killing intent spiking and his temper flaring out dangerously. The other four Shihoin kunoichis went tense, but remained calm. She was standing her ground against the waves of his powerful chakra, her blank, milky blue eyes looked at him unflinchingly.

"What? Are you deaf? I called you Sparky." She repeated at him slowly, acting like if he had a hearing problem. She was not intimidated by his menacing aura at all.

"Why, you woman!" Snarling, he attempted to lunge at her, only ended up restraining by Hashirama.

"Whoa! Calm down, Madara!" A tanned man cried as his arms held his snarling friend's body back.

Masumi scolded her exasperatingly, "Ishiko!"

Turning her head, Ishiko looked at her with her blank, milky blue eyes and said innocently, "Yes, Masumi-hime?"

She shot a steely look at her and said disapprovingly, "Ishiko...Did you want to explain to Mother why this village kicks us out of our future home, just because you antagonize our hosts?"

A blind woman paused briefly and considered the consequence of her Clan Head get a wind of the news about her rudeness toward their hosts. Michiko was very adamant on the proper behavior toward the host.

She then, turned her head back at Madara whose his temper now subsided slightly, but he was still holding back by Hashirama; A taller tanned man looked ready to restrain Madara, should a black haired man lose his temper again.

"I'm sorry. Uchiha-san and Senju-san, it was rude of me say like that." Ishiko apologized to Madara and Tobirama, her delicate face adapted the convincing apologetic expression; however the tone underneath her voice was saying otherwise.

"Really? Yo- Hmphmm!" Madara was skeptical about her sincerity; he was about resorting to saying the snarky remarks. Unexpectedly, the hand was cutting him short by cupping over his mouth.

"That's okay! He accepts your apology!" Hashirama said hastily behind him, trying to make a peace between Madara and Ishiko.

"I'm apologizing for her rudeness, she had...a tendency to call everyone a nickname when she meets them for the first time. I'm afraid that you have to deal with her calling you that nicknames...permanently." Masumi said with a slightly rueful expression.

"Hmph!" Madara grumbled unhappily, his mouth still covered tightly under his friend's tanned hand. He did not like that Sparky nickname. So did Tobirama with that pun-nickname. They instead chose to settle for shooting the rays of death at Ishiko from their burning eyes.

Ishiko just returned a flippant grin, not really feeling threatened by the most powerful Uchiha and strongest water user at all.

An heiress was letting out a long suffering sigh. Her best friend was going to be a death of her especially she now found her new targets to get under their skin.

Her hand rubbed her forehead resignedly, Masumi could feel a familiar dreading headache, that she often had in her previous lifetime when she was dealing with Sai and Naruto, forming in her head.

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**A/N: **Ahh! A second update from me few hours after a first one! :) Another scene of the Shihoin women and the Konoha founders! *wink*

Lol! It looked that Ishiko got off on the wrong foot with Madara and Tobirama. I see that Ishiko was still rebellious and brazen as ever. And have her way to get under their skins especially stiff white-haired man and spiky, long black-haired uchiha. Poor Masumi, she had to get a damage control over the incidents that Ishiko might cause in the future.

Sparky sounded familiar? Yes, you should! Cause' what Toph called Zuko that Sparky nickname. Zuko was a firebender. Madara was a fire user. I was like, aw, why not use that nickname? After all, Ishiko was based on Toph. I bet Ishiko used Sparky to annoy a hell of him on purpose. *wink*

I hope you enjoy this humorous moment of how Ishiko gave the Konoha founders the nicknames. I'm pretty sure that Tobirama and Madara did not enjoy their nickname at all. Lol, poor them.

Anyway, please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	15. Humor

**Summary:** Much to her chagrin, Ishiko received a nickname that reminded her of her adamant dislike of that vegetable. Unfortunately for her, her hair color also resembled the color of that vegetable, too.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The wooden chopsticks champed on a green stem and pull out from a top of the steamy foods. Ishiko made a disgusting face as she put it in her mouth. That taste made her want to spit out the offending food, but she had forced to keep it in her mouth. It would consider a rude gesture especially she was within the presences of her Clan Head and the two older women.

Masumi and Ishiko were sitting and eating their meals together in a separate low table. The Clan Head and her two bodyguards ate their own meals in another low table, in a modest distance away from them ensuring the little two girls some privacy of their own.

"I got a nice idea!" Her friend said, her chakra flicked in excitement as if she had a sudden inspiration hitting on her.

"What for?" She said in a boring tone, finishing to swallow that revolting thing and the chopsticks poking the one of the food pieces. Her other hand was under her chin. She wondered about what got her friend exciting suddenly.

"Your nickname. You always call me Princess all times. So, I should do a same thing to you!" Masumi told her, acting like that her idea was brilliant.

"Oh? So, what? you called me Blind-chan?" Ishiko scoffed sarcastically, her milky blue eyes rolling at her. No one in her clan except Ishiko were very creative or good at nicknaming the people.

"No, not that one! I think it's better something else..." A young heiress frowned, tried to come up other suitable nickname. It was a bit challenging to find a nickname without disrespecting her. Calling her friend Blind-chan as a nickname was not something she could do that. It was plain rude to emphasize her blindness. Masumi was respecting her friend very much so, for her amazing determination to become a kunoichi despite her handicap.

So, her blue-green eyes looked around the room, trying to find an inspiration in anything. Until her eyes fell upon the plant-like food on Ishiko's plate. She stared at it, and stared even more. She then flicked her eyes upward to her friend's hair slowly. Her eyes went back to the same food that she previously gazed at.

Ishiko blinked slowly in confusion, feeling her friend look back and forth between her and her plate. Her staring was peculiar. Suddenly, Masumi giggled mischievously, "You know, your hair color sorta strikes me of something familiar..."

Ishiko instantly froze as she heard her friend giggled in that manner. Her giggle reminded her too much of her female relatives were in a mischievous mood. It gave her a bad feeling. She then remembered about her strange staring a moment ago. Her intelligent brain was connected between the two dots.

"_Princess_...don't you dare-" She hissed warningly.

"Asparagus-chan~!" Masumi singsonged teasingly, flippantly ignoring her warning. Finally, she got a upping hand over her! It felt good to turn a table on her friend for a once.

"Damn it! Don't call me that!" Ishiko said grouchily. Her delicate left eyebrow twitched with irritation.

"Nope! Asparagus-chan~!" The seven half years old heiress said cheerily. Her chakra emitted a smug feeling to her sensory radar. A blind girl's left eyebrow made another twitch in response at her repeat of that nickname.

She could hear distantly the Clan Head along her two bodyguards chuckled softly in amusement. Apparently, they overheard their conversation, thanks to their sharp hearing. A blind little girl inwardly groaned in humiliation at her friend picking a wrong conversation at a wrong time. She was sure that she could ask them nicely not to mentioning that nickname to some of their mischievous relatives. She would never live it down if their relatives somehow got a wind of that.

_Oh why, oh why did out of all the colors her hair color ended up associated with that vegetable that she hated most?! It's not fair!_ Ishiko bemoaned at her misfortune, knew that Masumi now found her nickname and not going to stop calling her that nickname ever. Someone up in the heaven had a twisted sense of humor to make her hair resembled that vegetable she hated the most.

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**A/N: **Hello! My dear readers, I, SilverIcy bought you another update! Lol, Ishiko got a taste of her own medicine especially her annoyed habit to call everyone a nickname. This is how they called each other "Princess" and "Asparagus". They don't like these nicknames but it grow on them. I'm sure that that nickname bantering remind Masumi of her old bantering with Ino.

I hope that you readers like this light-heart scene. Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	16. Eccectric

**Summary: **The one of the Shihoin Clan's specialists gleefully took over a part of her training in the ninja art. Much to her embarrassment.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Hello! Masumi-chan! You might not remember me at that time, I visit you when you were a baby! I'm Rangiku! Nice to meet you!" Rangiku said cheerily as she introduced herself to the Shihoin Clan heiress.

On the contrary, Masumi did recall that time when this woman did visit her along with the other clan-members. She remembered her distinct voice from that time. The owner of that voice happened to a very same person that commenting on how cute her nose wrinkle in that way.

Masumi couldn't help herself but stared at the older woman. Rangiku had a beauty mark on the right side below her pouty lips. She had a waist-length and wavy hair. Her hair was a middle shade of the green color, sporting the cheek-length inward sidelocks and frontal fringe. Her long-lashed eyes were blue-gray.

The older woman garbed with the below-elbow length sleeves, loose kimono-style blouse and mesh legging. An obi held around her waist securely. Her blouse closed so low that her cleavage exposed scandalously. Her body was very...voluptuous. Her chest contained the largest breasts ever she had seen in her current lifetime. That woman's breasts were rivaling to Tsunade's breasts in the terms of size and volume.

The lethal combination of her beauty and her shapely body easily stopped dead the hot-blooded males, and any normal women turned green with envy upon seeing her body. Her body was also one among the many reasons why she was so good at her profession.

That wavy long-haired woman reputed to be a lover of the alcohol and quite...not so shy from what she heard from others about her.

"...Nice to meet you, Rangiku-san." She replied slowly. She felt like that she was facing a female version of Gai.

Seemly unperturbed by her reaction, Rangiku Shihoin grinned widely, "Oh, I'm so forward to teach you all about the wonders of the seduction!"

She happily clapped her hands almost as if she behaved like a delightful child over a new, shiny toy. She then did something unexpected that Masumi didn't see that coming. She hugged her.

"Hpm?!" Masumi squawked in startled surprise; she caught off by her unexpected hug in which her assaulter ended up smothering her face between her rather large breasts. Her overly enthusiastic hug suffocated a poor girl.

"You are so adorable! It make me want to hug you!" Rangiku squealed exuberantly, her arms tightened around the smaller body.

The twelve years old girl felt her face go scarlet in embarrassment and mortification at having her face press against her ample bosom; she tried to shake off her iron-like holding on her frantically before her lungs ran out of the precious air. Oh god, this Rangiku woman that her mother assigned to be her teacher, instructing her in the art of the seduction for six months?

She was so going to be scarred mentally by that eccentric woman who seemly intended to squeeze her to death, by the time when her seduction training was over.

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**A/N: **Wahoo, Another update from me! Lol, Poor Masumi. She had a misfortune to have Rangiku Shihoin as her teacher in the seduction training. And yes, Rangiku was a same person who commenting on her nose from _Chapter 5, Family_. You didn't expect that, did you? *wink* I intend all of these chapters connecting each other in the many different forms.

You might notice that I often based the OCs based on the strong women from other animes and shows. Most of these women that I think were plain awesome and badass, perfect fit for the Clan of the Women Warriors. Rangiku Shihoin also was based on Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach. She was the one of the Shihoin Clan's top seduction specialists.

Oh, all of the Shihoin kunoichis did have a basic seduction training but, not all of the Shihoin clan-members can specializing in the seduction. The profession of being the seduction specialists was not easy one, it could inflict some serious emotional damage if not being careful. Hence, why the majority of the seduction specialists in this clan were... a bit off their rocker.

Anyway, I hope that you like this Rangiku Shihoin character! Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	17. Step

**Summary**: Masumi attempted to hold the wooden brush and failed miserably.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A green haired woman smiled in amusement as she watched her one half years old daughter sitting on her lap, and trying to hold a brush too big for her hand; her face was concentrating intensely.

It was endearing to see a little reincarnated toddler struggled to hold a wooden brush in her tiny fist. It appeared that she attempted to write with her own hand.

Michiko could sense a roll of frustration emitting from her toddler girl as a wooden brush slipped out of her tiny hand. It fell into the table that was on the front of them. Luckily, the fallen brush did not contain the ink on it. There was no risk of having the accidental ink spilling all over the two people and desk.

"No!" Masumi cried unhappily, she failed to hold that damn slippery brush. Again. She felt her eyes starting to tear without her control in response to her frustration.

"Oh, daughter...Don't cry..." She sent a gentle wave of the comforting chakra over her daughter. As always, her simple, soothing act worked like a magic. The tears stopped to swell in her eyes.

It helped to soothe her frustration away. A teal-tinted green haired toddler sniffed lightly, still unhappy.

Her mother picked up the fallen brush and dipped it on the water container. The bristle was wet, she moved to an inkstick. An inkstick was already being wet in the advance, so she lightly pressed its bristle against the wet area of the black surface. When she was satisfied with enough black liquid in the bristle, making sure that she remove any excessive liquid in the bristle. Her grasping hand hovered in the air for a moment.

Her other hand moved and grasped her daughter's dominant arm. She directed the smaller arm toward a direction where her grasping hand was at. Michiko placed the wooden brush into the tiny hand, her hand quickly shifted and covering her daughter's hand that now grasping the brush.

Masumi blinked, then looked up at her mother in question with her head tilted upward. The green-haired mother looked downward at her daughter's rather adorable, confused face.

She just smiled mysteriously and said, "Look at this." Swiftly, her freed hand reached toward the small pile of the blank papers. She placed a paper in front toward them. Her freed hand went back to held her daughter's body in position, keeping her from fell away from her lap. It was done within a few seconds.

Bemused, her daughter's head went down and she was startled to see a paper already there on a desk in front of her.

Oh. Her mother wanted to show her something. She was curious what her mother was doing next.

Sensing her daughter paying attention, Michiko began to move her occupied hand. A gentle large hand holding a tiny chubby hand, carefully guided the brush against a white paper. Her mother did not make a wasteful movement, her moving hand full of the unspoken confidence. Masumi allowed her mother manipulating her hand like a puppeteer pulling the strings on the puppet.

Each stroke left behind the concise and elegant black black lines slowly formed into the two characters.

真澄

"This is your given name."

Masumi stared at her written form of her adopted name emboldening on the center of a white landscape paper. Her mother's writing was very graceful and flawless, resembling the professional calligrapher's writing. She felt a bit envious of her mother for her flawless writing because it looked so elegant and beautiful compared to her messy chicken writing that she acquired in her previous lifetime.

Almost if her mother reading her mind, she reassured, "Do not worry, you will get better over a time when you practice more. Don't give up, daughter."

Her hand that held over a smaller hand, squeezed lightly in the encouragement. The warm, fuzzy feeling of love blossomed in her heart. Her mother believed in her! Oh, what did she deserve this kind woman as her mother?

The blue-green eyes focused on her clutching hand with the renewed determination.

She could do it! She was not going to lose to that damn brush! _Shannaro!_

The azure blue eyes glinted with the amusement and pride, Michiko removed her hand from her toddler daughter's hand. This time, Masumi managed to latch on the slippery brush. A rush of victory passed through her.

_Finally!_ Masumi thought that it felt like it take forever to master this simple deed. She never thought that a simple act of holding the brush took the immerse effort to perform. She definitely was going to appreciate her self-sufficiency that she took granted for in her past incarnation.

Encouraging by her successful attempt, she silently commanded her arm to move forward over the blank, white paper. Her right arm sluggishly moved to the position where she wanted.

She then tried to mimic her mother's writing, only ending up smearing the paper with the jerky looking and ugly black line. She pouted in disappointment at her failed attempt to make a smooth line.

It was going to take a lot of practice to make a clean line with her uncoordinated hand. But again, she was not new at the hard work, did she? Just like her mother say that it took a time to reach that level of her mother's caliber, and practice made perfect.

Masumi sighed inwardly. One step at a time.

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**A/N**: Aw! It's fluff scene of the mother-daughter bonding time, isn't it? God, writing this fluffy scene gave me a lot of cavities. :)

Honestly, this chapter is little bit difficult to write, I had to leave this half-finished chapter sitting alone for a nearly month, meanwhile I was busy to write other easier prompts. When I finally came back to this chapter, it was now easier to write down there. Anyway, watch out for the more upcoming chapters! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews fuel my muse!

Note: An inkstick was a dry, solid form of the ink. It was also called Ink Cakes. It used traditionally in several East Asian cultures for the calligraphy and brush painting. Inksticks are made mainly of soot and animal glue, sometimes with incense or medicinal scents added. To make ink from the inkstick, it has to be continuously ground against an inkstone with a small quantity of water to produce a dark liquid which is then applied with an ink brush.

Let's saying that the high quality liquid ink was kinda expensive and scarce in the Clan Warring Era. It was considering luxury item, can be affording by the noble people, the people who know to make liquid ink and the prestigious clans. The Uzumaki Clan and The Shihoin Clan both fell into the middle category. :)


	18. Mousse

**Summary:** Universally, the comfort foods was a must when that time of month visited the women of the Shihoin Clan.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A pained groan.

The arms curled around her stomach, Masumi was laying on her side on her futon.

Michiko was sliding open the door with her hand, meanwhile her other hand occupied with the cup.

"Daughter? I made this treat for you." The older azure-eyed woman said, drawing her twelve years old daughter's attention at her. Lifting her head up, Masumi perked up at her mother's comment, her blue-green eyes zeroed on the small, white porcelain cup in her mother's hand. A small, metal spoon was sticking into the cup.

Her blue-green eyes were lightening up in delight, completely forgetting the throbbing pain in her belly.

Blessing her clan! She truly enjoyed to sampling her clan's wide variety of the desserts. Some of their desserts that she never heard or see before. Some were from the ancient times.

Some of the dessert ingredients weren't native to their home island, usually found in the tropical areas. The cocoa beans were the one of these ingredients. Her ancestors bought the seeds from the tropical lands, and built the special building designing for the tropical plants and other exotic plants.

Like the Library of Benzaiten, this building heavily decorated with the seals to control the environment as well as expanding the space pocket indefinitely within the limited space. It would allow the Shihoin Clan able to grow the wide variety of the foreign plants that was difficult to obtain by the other clans. It also helped to save the lot of money for the clan lived in the isolated island, ensuring them living in self-sufficiency.

Owing to the fabled library and the centuries of experiments in the culinary art in their own spare time, the Shihoin women created the unique dishes or drinks. They even made the massive profits from their specialty alcohols that they sold to the wealthy people from the continent and the Land of the Water under the anonymous merchant names.

Their desserts were so good that the Shihoin Clan made a law that they should consume the luxurious desserts whose its main ingredient was the cocoa on their time of the month and the special days such as the festivals. Oh, they could make the simple desserts that did not involve the cocoa anytime. Yes, they have the plenty of the cocoa trees but they preferred to save the precious cocoa for the special events.

Today, it was her time of the month. It sucked to have the painful cramp in her lower part, but there's a silver lining in a cloud. She was going to taste the delicious treat!

Her mother went to her futon where she was sitting on.

Masumi sat up eagerly, which causing her mother smile in amusement. Her body was bending slightly down, Michiko passed the cup to her eager sitting daughter. The young girl happily took a treat from her mother's forwarding hand.

"Thank you." Masumi spoke gratefully to her.

A hand grasped around the small spoon, she swooped the spoonful of the semi-solid sustenance. She reverently placed it into her mouth.

Masumi moaned blissfully at the delicious goodness known as the dark chocolate mousse melt on her tongue.

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**A/N:** Yay! Another update from me! Mmm! Chocolate! I admit that I'm really jealous of Masumi get the hand-made chocolate goodness from her mother! I myself had a sweet tooth and addiction to the chocolate. Probably the Shihoin Clan's love for desserts reflected my sugar tooth.

Ohh! We learn that the Shihoin Clan was not only just good at the ninja art, they were good at the culinary art, too! Of course, there's a majority of the women in this clan, naturally they want to make the sweet/sugary foods in the hundred ways in their own spare time.

Have a luxury of no worry about watching out your enemies constantly over your shoulder in your own home, and not mentioning a fact that they lived in the permanent residence for the centuries especially your home is the isolated island are the big factors in their refined development in the culinary art.

Of course, eating the dark chocolate while on that time of the month is perfectly okay as long as you eat in the small or moderate quantity. I'm sure that most of you female readers experience the craving for sugary treats. *wink*

I hope that this chapter is interesting to you! I would love to know what my readers thinking of this chapter! :)

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews fuel my muse!


	19. Abyss

**Summary: **Sakura mustered her last strength to fight him with her dying breath.**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: Violence and Gory.

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The bright, crimson liquid splattered on the shattered, broken rocks.

"Sakura!" Kakashi cried out fearfully, too late stopping the inevitable scene folding right on before his horrifying, dark gray eyes. His exhausted body unable to respond faster, already passed beyond its limit from his earlier battles. Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi had to fight him in order to stop his so called plan to assassinate the Kages.

Unfortunately, Sasuke already sent Naruto farther away from Sakura and Kakashi by using his left Rinnegan eye's special ability to transport in a limited range, which ensuring to prevent the effective teamwork between them. For a minute, Sakura and Kakashi forced to team-tag fighting the young man who seemly somehow boosted by the power that the Sage of Six Paths bestowed upon him. They managed to score the hits on him few times. Yet, he shrugged their hits off, continuing to fight them ruthlessly.

Then, things went from bad to worse when Kakashi's body decided to give up which left him incapacitating by his own body. Now, Kakashi was out and reduced to become the spectator. Sakura was forced to fight against the powerful, insane man alone. She gave her all-out effort to exchange the blows with him with an intent to kill. The earth shook and quivered under the powerful clash between them. Despite her effort, he managed to stab her through her chest with his Chidori.

Sakura coughed a mouthful bout of fresh blood painfully. A masculine arm completely sank in the right middle of her chest. A bloody hand exited out of her back.

_No!_ A pink-haired woman told herself forcefully, she was not going down without dragging him along her! She was gritting her bloody teeth and her bared hand lashing out to grab her intended target. A deceptively petite hand grasped her target's arm that imbedding in her chest, her iron-like grip fused with a burst of the superhuman strength. Below her chest, her other hand closed inwardly with the two index fingers forward, forming into the half-ram hand seal. She channeled her last chakra leftover through her index fingers, kneading the shining blue chakra into the long, sharp scalpel instantly.

Her glowing hand went blurred as she forcibly pushed her arm upward to the sky. A sickening sound of the blood spurting out of the body, some spilling blood splashed on her face, chest and her forward arm; Sakura completely severed Sasuke's arm from his body.

She grinned viciously, the bloody teeth bared as her jade eyes caught a sight of the pained shock expression on his pretty face. Faster than Sasuke reacted, Sakura proceeded to punch him in a face in a full force without any chakra in her wicked right hook.

With a satisfied sound of the skin against skin, his body, now one arm attaching to his body, went sailing across the several feet away from her.

_Thud!_ His body landed on the rocky ground, he was temporarily concussed by her punch. The shoulder joint where his arm severed by her, was bleeding profusely and tainting the earth with his blood.

Sakura didn't like to have that traitor's severed arm stuck in her chest. So, she grunted in agonizing pain as she tore off a severed arm from her chest. A waterfall of the crimson liquid spilled from the hole in her chest.

By a sheer will, she just was clinging to her life and remained standing up. Barely. Her body severely weakened by the combination of the fatal injury and severe blood loss, swayed in sideways dangerously. Almost if the last straw broke the camel's back, her body was plummeting forward toward the earth.

Kakashi caught her falling body, gently shifted her body backward and putting her on the ground.

"Sakura, please heal yourself!" His hands swiftly removed his beaten vest, and tore off the several pieces of his dark, long-sleeved shirt. Kakashi didn't care that his upper body was partly exposed, all the things that he wanted to do was save Sakura's life. He promptly covered and plugged the hole in her chest with the pieces of his cloth.

It shook Kakashi to his core that the parallel of the similar chest injury by his own created technique, Chidori between Rin and Sakura.

"K-kakashi-sensei... " She gasped weakly, her life-force rapidly seeping out of her dying body along her fast-escaping blood. She couldn't. No one could save her except her teacher. Tsunade was not here to save her, still ensnared by the infinite Tsukuyomi. Her forehead was completely void of the purple rhombus marking. Her Yin seal already emptied of her chakra worth three years, especially she used up her last chakra remaining to hold him tightly and sever his arm off.

"T-tell him, I-I'm s-" She gurgled on her own blood, and her blood-staining pale lips silenced by his finger placing on the top of her mouth. His hand that was on her lip, went back to her chest where the pieces of the cloths now permeating heavily with her blood.

"Sshh, Don't say anymore, stay with me a little longer! Naruto will come soon!" Kakashi said, struggled with the ever-growing despair and a fleeting hope that Naruto hurried to come back on time enough to save her. Sakura did not say any words, knowing that Naruto was too late to save her. At least, she managed to chop off his precious arm and crippled that bastard with her own hands. Now, Sasuke couldn't make the hand seals or fight effectively with the one arm.

_Ha! Take that, you traitor! _Her inner Sakura crowed with the vindictiveness, rapidly faded away. Sakura smiled inwardly and weakly at her inner Sakura's last words.

Her dull jade eyes were feeling like they filled with the heavy lead. She was really, really tired.

In her hooded eyes, her world once beautiful with the lively colors turned grey. _So cold,_ she thought morbidly, the warmth left her. So did her breathing.

"Sakura! No! No! No! don't close your eyes!" He pleaded pathetically, his hands desperately trying to cover and stem the ever-flowing hole wound in her chest with the pieces of his cloth tightly.

_Kami! No, Sakura! Where the hell Naruto was, Damn it?! _For a first time, the many years since he stabbed Rin to death, his eyes started to leak the tears.

A dying pink-haired woman felt herself drifting away from her consciousness, dimly heard her teacher screaming her name frantically and Naruto's heartbreaking scream.

"Sakkuurrraaa!"

Helplessly paralyzing by the tendrils of Death, Sakura fell and submerged into the deep, black void.

...

...

...

The blue-green eyes snapped open, the black pupils contracted in fear. A strangled gasp pieced though the silence. She found herself staring at the dark ceiling. Her heart throbbed frantically against her left chest cavity. Her body tensed with a residue of terror from her nightmare.

Her hand went to her paling face, the back of her hand fell laying against her sweaty forehead. She took a deep exhalation, trying herself calm her tumultuous chakra down. She inhaled tremblingly. She was really affected by the intensity of her nightmare.

Feeling a phantom pain in a middle of her chest, where a hole once created by a monster that she once loved him upon a one time a long time ago. Her hand previously on her forehead, trailed down to her chest. The ten years old heiress rubbed her chest with her hand absently and unconsciously.

Closing her eyes, Masumi shuddered, vividly remembering a recurred dream of her dying moment, her closest friends' heart-wrenching cries for her and her descent into the eternal abyss.

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**A/N: **Wah! Man, That was intense emotional update! Surely, you could feel some intense feeling rolling off this scene. :)

Poor Masumi, it was not so fun to have a recurring nightmare of her death. It appeared that even a ten years since her rebirth, she still suffered the post-traumatic stress symptom in a time to time. Actually this is how Sakura died before her rebirth. I did not want Sakura died a purposeless death, she was a strong woman with a strong conviction. So therefore she deserved a last laugh on him.

And yes, it's completely diverged from chapter 693. In this story, Sakura was from the world where Sasuke actually killed her and Naruto arrive too late to save her. I have a nothing against Sasuke, but I do not approve that Sasuke treat Sakura in that mannar. Sakura should deserve better than that! I hope that it's an answer enough for you regarding her death prior to the beginning of this story. I would love to know what you think of this update!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews help to keep my muse flowing!


	20. Fate

**Summary:** Masumi discovered that she was really out of time figuratively and literally.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: A little bit swearing

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She pretended to sleep with her close eyes, she was now able to maintain her alertness a bit longer than before. Addition to this, she carefully made her emotions stay calm as possible.

For her first three months as a baby, she spent a lot of time to sleep and barely stay alert for the couple of minutes. It was nothing to do but drinking her mother's milk (She preferred not remembered that, thank you very much!), pooping (Eww! She really hated that gross part and felt humiliating to have her mother wiping the poops off her butt. She now could sympathize with the paralyzing patients whose couldn't take care of themselves.) and sleeping.

Then, her alertness improved increasingly when she was passing the third month mark, and continued to improve afterward.

Masumi did not know what exact years or where she was born in. She knew that she was born in the same universe where the chakra and ninjas still existed. Her new family apparently were professed in the ninja art. She knew that she had been at least several months old since her re-birth.

She had to be extremely patient for a right information coming to her. So, right here, she currently was in her wooden crib sealed with the seals that protected her from the chakra sensory overload, and her crib was near next to her mother's desk. Her mother kept her stay close to her in order to keep closer watch on her.

Michiko had the several cribs placed in the rooms that she frequently went to. The one of the rooms that she often visited happened to be her private Clan Head office where she received the daily and important reports and other official scrolls. That's where and when Masumi was eavesdropping with interest in the daily reports that involved mostly of her clan affairs and, more importantly, the lands outside of their home.

"...Regarding the Land of Fire, The old Fire Daimyo recently passed away five days ago. A new Fire Daimyo had been selected already." An olive-haired woman reported, her voice sounded nice but boring enough to tempt Masumi to sleep. Masumi peaked up in interest at the mentioning of her former country, mindful of her control on her strong emotions that could affect her internal chakra if she was not careful. Her eyes remained closed, her sharp hearing stayed alert.

"Oh? What is his name?" Michiko inquired. Is it just her or her mother ask more information within her hearing range on purpose? Nah, it could be her imagination. After all, her mother was the Clan Head and had to know what's going on the political world outside their home.

"Kazuhito, A firstborn son of the late Fire Daimyo." Her messenger answered succinctly.

Her mind stilled abruptly at her mentioning of that new Fire Daiymo's name. That name was very familiar to her. That's because, in Sakura's time, this was a name of the current Fire Daiymo's great grandfather. She was taught that portion of the history lessons in her civilian school when she was very young before her transfer to the Ninja Academy. His reign period was also when the legends of the most famous and legendary ninjas came to exist.

She was completely stunned, so stunned that she completely forgot to keep her emotions calm. Her internal chakra reeled in shock, reflecting her feeling upon the revelation.

_Holy_-! She did not see that coming. She _thought_ that she was in the future after the Fourth World War. This new information threw her assumption out of the window. She was not in any periods where her beloved home existed.

Instead, her soul was flying backward in time and ended up landing on the period where the bloodiest wars between the warring clans and the highest casualties of the children were common.

Sakura Haruno was reborn as Masumi Shihoin, the heiress of this clan that she never saw nor heard of them before. Worsen, she even didn't know where she and her clan lived at!

...And she lived in a time of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, who were alive and probably toddlers. Well, Fate really was screwing her in the six ways to Sunday all beyond recognition.

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**A/N: **Wohoo! I reached 20th chapter in a just two months that fast! I'd say that it's impressive for me able to reach 20th chapter less than two months. Maybe this story potentially reached 50th chapters or more than if my muse continue to pop out new chapters in that rate in next three months.

It seems that I like to keep to threw the curve balls at poor Masumi. *evil laughter*

Well, It was understandable that Masumi was shocked. After all, the reincarnation wheel theory supposed to say that after a person's death, he or she reborn in another person in _forward_ time, not backward time. And his or her soul supposed be wiped clean, started out as a new person.

But I, SilverIcy, decided to play the Fate/Kami and threw the proverbial monkey wrench into the reincarnation wheel. That glitch in this wheel resulted a person reborn with her memories intact. This story was a result of that. I hope that you like my attempt on how she found out that she was reborn in past. I would love to know what my readers think of this chapter. :) Also, Keeping watch out for more exicting upcoming chapters!

Anyway, please review this chapter! Your reviews are a lifeblood of my muse!


	21. Seiza

**Summary:** Masumi and Ishiko found out that the displeasing Michiko was an extremely bad idea.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A one hour passed since the vase incident.

"W-we are s-sorry! Mother/Michiko-sama!" The little girls apologized together as their back forced to straightening still, their legs painfully numbed from folded under their bottom for a quite extended time. Their petite hands arranged to palm down on their upper thighs. They forced to sit that way for almost an hour. It was excruciatingly boring and pure torture for the two young girls used to the physically active lifestyle.

In a front of them, the azure eyed woman was serenely sitting in a same way as the two girls.

"Mmm..." Michiko hummed thoughtfully as she was drinking her tea leisurely. She was acting like the numbing sensation is nothing, remaining unperturbed. She paused her drinking slightly.

"I assume that you do not wish to repeat that event again, am I correct?" She said, her voice remained serene, her deceptively sweet smile reeked a danger causing them gulping in fear.

"O-of course, Mother/Michiko-sama! We will be mindful of our surroundings!" Masumi and Ishiko chorused together, pouring their sincerity in their statement much as possible.

The older green-haired woman eyed them scrupulously. They fidgeted under her azure eyes. The nearly seven years old heiress and blind girl sighed in relief as Michiko made another hum sound approvingly, then resumed her drinking.

"Y-your mother is scary..." Ishiko whispered softly, soft enough for Masumi to hear. She was normally being a very brash girl. But she now was meek and scared to the submission by her Clan Head.

If the Shihoin leader heard her whispering to her daughter, she didn't comment on that and still continued to sip her tea.

Masumi nodded weakly. When her mother's favorite vase broke, She swore that she, for a moment, saw a fearsome visage of the blood-red, demonic hannya mask floating behind her mother. That mask disappeared as soon as her mother regained her calm facade back. It was the most terrifying visage ever she saw in her whole life. Way more frightening than her Tsunade-shishou's short temper, she really, really didn't want to see or face that mask ever again. And...

Who knew that her normally mild-tempered mother had a sadistic streak hidden in her? She punished them by having them perform a painful form of sitting - Seiza.

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**A/N:** Yay, finally another update from me, although it was very short chapter! This chapter was subsequent to the previous Chapter 9,_ Displeasure._ Oh~! Masumi and Ishiko definitely learnt their lesson. *evil chuckling*

Worrying not! A next chapter would be very longer and there will be the characters you want to see again! Please watch out for next incoming chapter!

Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews are my muse's lifeblood.

Note: A Seiza is a formal and traditional way of sitting in Japan. It was common practice in the tea ceremonies, the martial arts and some traditional Japanese arts. Those unfamiliar with _seiza_ will likely find that maintaining it for more than a minute or two tends to lead to loss of circulation, with the accompanying 'pins and needles' feeling, followed by painful burning sensations, and then eventually complete numbness in the legs. However, the physical discomfort lessens with experience as the circulation of the blood improves. Experienced _seiza_ practitioners can maintain the posture for forty minutes or more with minimal discomfort.


	22. Conversations

**Summary:** The creators of Konoha waited to meet the representatives of the Shihoin Clan.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The men were standing at the boundary line of Konoha, facing to the east direction that led to the Eastern coastal line of the Fire where the Shihoin Clan originated from. A same destination where the Land of the Water was at. The Shihoin Clan agreed to send their embassies to negotiating with them regarding on the housing location and others.

Hashirama vibrated with the excitement and curiosity. He always loved to meet the new people with all kinds of the various backgrounds. Today, he was about going to meet the embassies from the Shihoin Clan! He himself never met a member of that clan in person before.

Tobirama's body went stiff, startled slightly as soon as the five foreign chakra signatures popped out of nowhere within his sensory range.

"Five chakra signatures incoming, Two o'clock. At five minutes till they come visible to us." He said tensely, right away after his mind calculated a time when their incoming guests appeared within their vision range, causing other two men perking up in the eager alertness.

They waited in the anticipation, their alert eyes lay in the direction where their incoming guests soon might arrive.

A first minute passed. The two minutes...Three minutes...

Longer they were waiting for, more they felt like their sense of time stretching into forever.

Then, finally the five distinctive human-shaped forms came into their eyesight. At a first glance, they did not make out the details of their appearances. They could tell that all of them were women and formed the rhombus formation surrounding around someone. Until their guests got close enough for the men getting a closer looking on their detailed descriptions.

Hashirama could see that the rumors about their beauty were true.

They all shared the similar delicate, aristocratic cheekbones and distinctive princess-cut style side-bangs. That two traits made their beauty more striking and exotic. Have it not for they were wearing their kunoichi gears, and carry the air of the warrior in their graceful and elegant stride; they would be mistaken for the nobility women.

The blue and green colors were prominent in their attires, in the various shades of green and blue compatible with their individual appearances. The women's kunoichi gears were practical, but at a same time, it customized to suit their tastes. In other words, their clothes were unique and individual. Hashirama was impressed that they managed to keep it practical and flair in an equal amount. Although, some of their clothes were a little bit too clingy to their curves. He wisely ignored that part for a sake of his loyalty to his dear wife.

They also wore light dull-gray metal armors on their shins and forearms. It puzzled Hashirama that they wore that so little armors, until he remembered that the Shihoin kunoichis tended to prefer to be fast and agile without having to worry about the heavy armors dragged down them.

The blue armbands were on their left upper arm, the stark white Shihoin Clan emblems blazed on the blue fabrics.

They were not only beautiful, they were also strong, too. Hashirama remembered that Tobirama's startled stiffness happened a few minutes earlier ago when his sensory range registered their chakra signatures. It was not everyday to see his younger brother caught off by their sudden presences popping out of nowhere that close to them. It clearly implied that these women were not ones to be underestimated.

When they came closer and closer until they were stopped at the few meters away from the waiting men.

A fairly tall and slender woman strode out of the diamond formation, her steps full of the womanly confidence and noble-like elegance. The armband on her left upper arm attracted his attention. Her armband was dark, intense blue - shades darker compared to other armbands on the others. A color of the Shihoin Clan emblem was not white, it instead was silver. A silvery Shihoin Clan emblem shimmered softly when the sunlight touched upon it.

It clearly indicated that she was a leader of her group. She looked about least 22-24 years old. Bit younger than him and Madara, and older than Tobirama. She had a teal-tinted green, silky hair at the waist length. Her eyes were blue-green. Her skin was fair. She looked like that she was a living warrior princess walking straight out of the fabled myth that he once heard from his late mother in his childhood.

She sidestepped as she glided passed by the sea blue-eyed woman who was in a front of her. The other three women followed her, and stopped walking when they were in a horizontal line beside the sea blue-eyed woman.

Her walking stopped after she made a few more steps ahead away from her group. The founders of Konoha were eyeballing at the still kunoichi leader with the cautious interest.

Their leader, then was first one to bow at them in a formal greeting manner. The other four Shihoin kunoichis followed her to bow formally in a same manner.

The men also returned the formal greeting bows. Once they finished exchanging the customary greeting, Hashirama made a first move.

"Greeting Shihoin-san, Welcome to Konohakague. I'd hope that you have not encounter the difficulties when you travel to came here." Hashirama greeted, his deep voice boomed with the warm hospitality.

"Not at all, thank you for your concern for our well beings. Senju-san." A Shihoin leader answered. Her voice sounded confident, nothing revealing her being nervous that she was just exchanging the words with the men who happened to be the famous Senju brothers and the strongest Uchiha. If she was nervous, Hashirama thought that she did an admirable job to conceal her nervousness already.

"As you already knew, I am Senju Hashirama. This is Uchiha Madara and my brother, Senju Tobirama. We are the founders of this village. May I have an honor to know your names, ladies please?" Hashirama smiled graciously at them as he introduced himself and the two men. His stance was relaxed and friendly. It would ensure the easy, smooth communication between them.

Madara nodded curtly, his close-arms stance made him look aloof. Hashirama hoped that his guests weren't offended by his seemly aloof attitude, though he noticed that a teal-tinted green haired woman eyed his Uchiha friend for the few lingering seconds more than usual. Her expression was completely unreadable. He did not know what she was thinking of his Uchiha friend, though he surmised that she was probably leery of Madara. It was understandable since Madara had a quite fearsome, bloody reputation throughout the world.

Her blue-green eyes moved away from a black haired man and meet the crimson eyes staring back at her stoically. Tobirama wore his typical neutral expression on his face when he met the new people that could be became either allies or enemies.

Hashirama could tell that his brother and the Shihoin leader sized up on each other silently, trying to gauge their strengths and weaknesses.

Then, much to his relief, her gaze broke away from Tobirama and shifted back to Hashirama.

"I am Shihoin Masumi, the Heiress and Representative of the Shihoin Clan. It is an honor to meet you. Senju-san." Masumi replied formally, her lips curling upward. A tenseness in the air purged down as soon as she smiled her friendly, polite smile at the men.

"These are my bodyguards, Shihoin Ishiko and Shihoin Mai." Masumi gestured her hand to introduce her fellow clan-members. An asparagus-green haired woman stared at them with her blank, milky blue eyes; her posture gave Hashirama the inkling that she was stubborn, defiant woman. Her eyes clearly indicated that she was blind. It was a bit unnerving for the men to see a blind woman gazing at them directly.

Hashirama noticed something strange about this blind woman. Her feet were exposed and bared, void of any sandals. Although the part of her naked feet specifically her foot arches partially covered with the black stirrup socks that ran underneath her pair of gray metal shin guards. He guessed that her bared feet had something do with her blindness, although he was not sure what a purpose behind the bare feet was.

Hashirama decided not to dwell on that odd part as his sight moved to an older woman, looking around at late 30s. Her long hair tied into a high ponytail. A latter emerald-green haired stoic kunoichi tilted her head to acknowledge a mention of her name. Her expression remained neutral and emotionless.

And she carried her sheathed katana on her left hip.

This emerald-green haired woman, Mai reminded him of his younger brother in any way, especially the expressions they both wore and walked in the cautious manner. A nasty, white jagged scar on her fair skin where her throat and chest meet, was standing out. It looked old, possibly damaged her voice box. He wondered inwardly about how was it possible that she survived that fatal injury. The Shihoin Clan must have the very best medical ninjas to able to heal this injury.

Or she got just that lucky.

But he knew better; Anyone, whom managed to survive this kind of injury and in addition to exceed the age of 30 already, will certainly become much stronger and dangerous ever than before. He would probably compare Mai to the prowling panther.

Masumi continued as she moved on another green haired younger woman with the tiny, colorful and exotic seashell beads covering on a single braid tucking behind her right ear, "Shihoin Sacha, our scout." A younger woman, Sacha tilted her head slightly, her sea blue eyes inspecting the three men up and down in the appreciative interest. Hashirama did not sure which ones he should be flattered or freaking out by a such bold, appreciative glint in her eyes.

He decided that he'd better not know about that. His attention shifted next to another young woman.

"Shihoin Yosumi, she will give you the layout of our clan's house preference when our negotiation reached its completion." Yosumi smiled shyly, her head nodded politely. Her above shoulder-length jade green hair swayed softly as it followed her nod movement. She gave off the impression of the overtly mild-mannered, timid woman. She didn't look like that she suited for the kunoichi profession at the first glance. But Hashirama thought otherwise.

It's very important for the people in the ninja profession learnt a rule to look underneath the underneath. Unfortunately most of the men tended to forget that rule when it came to the women. Because the women generally were weaker than men, the shinobi often underestimated the kunoichi. Hashirama learnt his lesson inflicting by his wife in a very painful way. Mito was a hell of a scary woman especially the combination of her secondary to none sealing mastery and her hidden temper were lethal, deadly and nothing to sneezing at.

And his cousin, too. Toka's genjustu skill was no slouch either, she could easily give him the worst and nightmarish genjustus which he had no desire to experience that ever again.

When the Shihoin leader finished her introduction process, Hashirama recognized some of their names instantly. He knew that the other two men recognized these names, too. These names, that he instantly recognized, were well known among the Ninja World.

Mai Shihoin was an exceptionally talented sword-master specializing in the two sword style. She never spoke or replied back to the enemies whenever they tried to assault verbally at her. She instead just drew her swords out, unleashed her sword prowess on the enemies without saying any words. She ended up earning her nickname, the Silent Dancer. It was understandable that she was mute due to her injury, from what he saw that on her person. Through, Hashirama wondered about her second sword's whereabouts. He suspected that she probably placed her second weapon in a storage scroll hidden somewhere on her person.

Ishiko Shihoin was an equivalent version of Tobirama when it came to the earth justus. He heard that she could perform the earth justus without the hand seals, as almost if akin to she bends the earth to her will. He heard a rumor about an incident few years ago involving Ishiko and the mercenary band called the Earth Rumble from the Land of Earth. The mercenary band led by the shady shinobi who went by his alias, Xin had the several powerful, notorious earth users including Goushi The Rock Swimmer and Hun The Boulder.

Ishiko completely humiliated them by defeating them in their own home advantage. Last time he heard about that defeated opponents, they still were considering the laughingstocks by the whole population in the Land of Earth both civilians and ninjas for being beat by the blind woman, not mentioning a fact that she was the outsider. The amazing thing about her was, she was genuinely blind. Hence why, she earned her moniker, the Blind Earthbender.

Lastly, Masumi Shihoin was, according to the rumors, capable to destroy the mountain, sink the island and create the earthquakes with her single punch. The enemies called her the Titaness because of her prowess in her taijustu and her superhuman strength. No one in the Land of the Water able to match her in a term of the raw physical strength not even Kaguya's bloodline limit could withstand a colossal power of her punch.

However, Hashirama was more interested in her other moniker, Goddess of Healing. He was interested because he had also been medical ninja himself. He heard the amazing things about her unparalleled ability to cure the poisons that were thought to be uncured, healing the grievous injuries which were beyond the general healers' ability and restored the people with the supposed incurable ailments back to their full health. She once helped the many people when the plague stuck the Land of the Water and its many surrounding islands several years ago, even it did not reach the continent due to the isolation of the Water Land. That event earned her this moniker.

Hashirama even knew that he would find it hard-pressed if he engaged her in the straightforward taijustu especially her ability to heal herself instantly, from what he recalled from the rumors. In other word, she considered the strongest woman in the world when it came to the taijustu combat with the chakra-enhanced strength.

"Your names are such lovely and well-suited to you," Hashirama complimented honestly, causing the group of the women gave him a mixture of the raised eyebrows and amusing looks. They knew that he was not truly intending to flirt with them. He was just honest.

"Thank you, Senju-san." Masumi said in amusement, speaking for both herself and her other fellow kunoichis.

Sensing his younger brother wish to say something, Hashirama continued, "I believe that my brother would like to say something. Brother?"

"Yes, There are the two conditions that we must impose on you before you're entering our village. You must not attack us or our people. All of you must inform us and escort with a person of our choosing when you choose to wander or tour in our village alone or with your group. Or else your clan will not be welcome here if you disobey our conditions." Tobirama spoke with the subtle warning underneath his tone, his chakra flared to emphasize on his latter statement. It was barely noticeable but still plainly clear to the group of the female sensors.

"Of course, Senju-san. We understand and agree with your conditions within the reasons. We also reserve a right to defend ourselves if they attack us first." Masumi replied evenly, her blue-green eyes looked back at the white-haired man unflinchingly. Her fellow clan members bristled for a second in a response to his implying threat, then relaxed as soon as they realized that a white-haired man simply desired to protect his home from the potential enemies.

Secretly impressed with his guests' levelheaded reactions to his brother's blunt assertion, Hashirama grinned and said as if nothing fazing him, "Well, I think that we shouldn't let these lovely ladies stand outside for too long. Surely, you would like to get some rest and refreshment after a such long travel from your home to here, Shihoin-san?"

With his lighthearted statement like that, the tense air between them relaxed and reverted back to the pleasant mood.

"Yes, we'd appreciate to have some rest and refreshment. Senju-san, please address me by my name. After all, we will soon be allies with you and live in this village. Not mentioning that it would be confusing to address us with our last names since we all shared a same family name."

"Indeed, it is. If you return a same courtesy to us as well, Masumi-san."

"Very well, Hashirama-san. Would you kindly escort us to a place where we can rest?" Masumi requested politely.

"Of course, we are your escorts, we also had an accommodation specifically for the guests. Do you mind that we wish to like to inquire more about our soon-be neighbors on the way to our destination?" A Senju leader asked tactfully, fully aware of the other two men beside him were keenly curious about the embassies of the reclusive Shihoin Clan and had their own questions that they want to voice out.

"As long as you did not probe for our clan secrets and ask the questions respectfully, I would not mind to enlighten your questions." Masumi replied. She looked at the three men expectantly.

"Wonderful! Come with us, I shall lead you in there!" A tanned man said jovially, taking over a guide escort position. After all, he was a first person to greet these lovely guests. Therefore, he should be the one to take them to the intended destination.

Guiding them toward the towering gate along with Tobirama and Madara, Hashirama inwardly was elated that their first meeting in person with the Shihoin kunoichis went well.

He certainly admitted that meeting the members of the Shihoin Clan was much fascinating more than compared to other clans he previously met before. He could tell that all the Shihoin women even the timid Yosumi had the sharp, intelligent glints in their eyes, their glints in their various blue eyes implied that they were not the typical meek and submissive females whom Hashirama encountered in the general public.

These women were so different; that way they behave toward them, their clothing and their lifestyle were in stark contrast to the traditional, male-orient ninja clans that Hashirama might think that they were from the far away country. It was a quite novel experience for him. He liked that kind of feeling. That good kind of feeling where the curiosity, fascination and bafflement rolled onto the single emotion.

He was sure that his cousin, Toka Senju, and his wife, Mito, would get along with the Shihoin representatives like a house on fire, if they would meet each other in person.

Hashirama couldn't help himself but grinning widely, very much so forward to have the conversations with the Shihoin leader. It would be very enlightening to learn more about the reclusive clan that he had very little knowledge on.

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**A/N:** Ahh! A longest chapter ever I've written in this story! Terribly sorry about a month wait for update from me! This massively long chapter should be made up for that wait! Finally, that's a scene you readers wait for - A first official meeting between the Konoha leaders and the Shihoin Clan's embassies from Hashirama's view!

I hope that I spot well on Hashirama's character and feeling about his first meeting with the Shihoin Clan. As for a reason why he was unaccustomed to the Shihoin women, remember that he was growing up in the male-orient ninja family. Yes, he does respect the women/kunoichis, he wasn't a sexist. But the influence/attitude from his traditional family and ninja culture as well as the Clan Warring Era was very ingraining into his mind, he might exhibit some of sexist behaviors unconsciously. (Probably it resulted him putting his foot in his mouth more often when he was within his wife and cousin, I bet so.) Plus the strong female leader of the ninja clan was very rare in this era, hence why he was not used to the female leader who talk and treat him as the leader to leader. I hope that you got my point.

Whoa, Sakura had the impressive and badass reputation under her belt! Not mentioning that she had the two badass monikers and gave the Kohona founders an impression of the living warrior princess! I bet that Tsunade was very pleased and proud of her if she saw her making her debate in that way! *wink*

What did you thinking of this scene where the Shihoin women made their first impression on them/dialogue between them? I hope that the dialogue was not too shabby, since the first meeting between the leaders obviously required the formal speaking and custom greeting.

And yes, that Earth Rumble mercenary band based and inspired by the Earth Rumble tournament and its participators in _Avatar The Last Airbender_. And yes, that Xin the shinobi was based on Xin Fu, too. That the Boulder guy, too. How did it happen between Ishiko and the Earth Rumble mercenary? Or what's about Sakura's exploits specifically sinking the island and that plague incident? *smirking* Well, that's another story for another time.

Please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews increase my motivation to write the incoming chapters!

Translation: Mai's meaning was dance in Japanese. Yosumi translated Four Corners. Sacha translated Searcher.


	23. Understatement

**Summary:** Michiko was confiding in her two best friends about her newborn daughter and a true reason behind her unusual yin chakra.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"What the goddess happening to you? You look like crap." Asami was worried. So did Mai. They could tell that their closest friend having the slightly black bags under her eyes despite Michiko's attempted to cover her black bags under the makeup. After all, they knew her for the longest time since they grew up from their childhood together.

It had been two months since their closest friend gave a birth to her first child. They rarely saw her due to the Shihoin Clan received the sudden, temporary influx of the new missions from the Land of the Water and its surrounding islands as well as the Continent. They were able to congratulate Michiko and their newly heiress in person in a day after Michiko gave a birth. Afterward that day, they both got busy with the missions for two months.

Now, Asami and Mai finally winded down as the amounts of the missions slowed down. They promptly used this chance to see their friend.

The trio finally had an opportunity to spend together since Michiko was busy with her new daughter and her works as the Clan Head. She need a brief break from taking a care of her newborn daughter. She assigned an experienced babysitter watching over her currently sleeping daughter. She definitely felt her stress go down when she saw her two best friends that she hadn't gotten a chance to wind down and chat with them for two months.

Michiko sighed inwardly, then said, "You wouldn't believe me if I tell you." Her voice was much more wary than normal which causing them to look at her in concern.

"Well, trying us. After all, we saw a lot of crazy things together with you." Asami looked at Michiko meaningfully.

"..." Mai didn't say any words, her impassive expression remained unchanged.

"...Very well, then. But, firstly we need to get this room soundproof and the sake. A lot of sake." Michiko made a unique hand-sealless silence technique. The women felt the hidden seals within the floor and walls of the chamber that they were residing, stirred and responded to Michiko's command. It was now sealed and soundproof, ensuring that the nosy eavesdroppers unable to access the sensitive information which Michiko was about disclosing to her friends.

Michiko then proceeded to go to the secret cache of the finest sake. She took out the large sake container along with the three cups.

Mai raised her eyebrow in question. That was very unusual for her to have this room soundproof and the sake at the same time. It must be a sign of her friend came across a very sensitive information, and it stressed her that bad, enough to cause her resorting to drink the sake.

The Clan Head placed the three cups on the low wooden table in front of her two friends. Wordlessly, She opened the container and poured the sake into the cups in three quick, successive rows. Once she had been completing her deed, a sake container placed on the table.

Michiko was first one to pick up her cup delicately. The two women followed her steps to retrieve their cups. They brought it to their lips leisurely.

They sipped the sake from their cups, its liquid tasted bitter and left a light burning sensation trailing down their throat. A long, pensive silence accompanied in this room, interrupted by the occasional sounds of sipping their sake. The two women were patient, knew that it took a time for their best friend expressing her problems in her own words.

"Did you know a reason behind why Masumi's unusual yin chakra?"

Asami blinked, took back at her unusual question. She replied in puzzlement, "No, what does it have to do with your insomnia?"

Mai looked at her expectantly, equally perplexed by Michiko's question. Yes, they were aware that Masumi had the strange yin chakra. But, they did not understand how did Masumi's condition relate to her insomnia.

"It is. I believe it was because Masumi was a reincarnation of the deceased person." She finally confessed her little secret that she held for two months. In that way she spoke, it was blurt and straightforward.

Asami nearly choked on her sake. Fortunately, she managed not to get the burning liquid go in the wrong way.

A raising sake cup froze and hovering still near Mai's lips. They lowered their cups back on the table quickly with a bit more force, but not enough to break the cups accidentally. The dull thumping sounds echoed when the bottom of the half-filled cups met the hard surface.

"What?" Asami exclaimed incredibly, her eyes widen in disbelief. She couldn't believe that Masumi actually said that absurd things! Mai stared at her, like her friend, her reaction mirrored Asami's reaction upon hearing her Clan Head saying to them.

The duo stared at her, looking at her like if their Clan Head was spouting a second head. They activated their bloodline limit to read her chakra if she actually was telling a truth. Normally, this act considered rude in this clan if the person whom they attempted to read was a high-ranked person without asking for permission. However, considering this unusual situation and these offenders happened to be her best friends, Michiko was letting her friends off easy. It was understandable that it was a bit preposterous to say that her daughter was reincarnated. Anyone in their place would be skeptical to this claim.

It finally dawned on them that Michiko wasn't fooling around, and dead serious. So, they naturally gaped at her.

"S-Seriously? For real?" Asami was stunned by the revelation.

Mai had the 'explaining now!' expression on her face.

Heaving another tired sighing, Michiko began to explain how she discovered her daughter's unusual yin chakra and its source. Her special ability verified that her daughter had a fully mature soul essence.

She also explained how her insomnia was a result of waking frequently by sensing the strong distress feeling emitting from her sleeping daughter. Michiko concluded that Masumi must have the nightmares about her own death or traumas, since her newborn daughter had a full access to her memories. Every night since her birth, a newly mother had to soothe her distressed newborn with her chakra after the fits of her nightmares. Hence her developing black bags under her eyes.

They listened to her without interrupting her. Their faces adapted the neutral expressions at the beginning of her explanation. The worrying glints appeared in their eyes when they discovered the source of their best friend's insomnia.

When Michiko finally finished her explanation, Asami said in dismay, "Michiko, why did you not tell us? We could help you with that!"

"Asami-chan, You both were busy with the missions in past two months. Besides, I was too occupied with taking care of Masumi and the Clan business. We didn't get a chance to spend together until now."

Asami sighed guiltily and knew that Michiko was right.

"I suppose, you are right. But! We now know that you need our help! Afterward, we'll watch your girl when we take our turn every night. So you need your beauty sleep!" Said Asami sternly, her voice was booking a nonsense tone. Mai nodded in agreement.

Michiko gave Asami a grateful glance.

_"Did anyone beside us aware of this?"_ Mai finally asked in a moving form of her hands signing, she actually couldn't speak due to her injury-induced muteness.

"No, no one, not even the elders. Just two of you. Although I think Kaede-obachan had a slight suspicion that I knew something, but she never asked me about that." The clan leader answered. The two women sighed in relief upon her friend's answer, since they did not like some of the clan elders whom were too nosy and shoved their noses into others' business that did not belong to them.

A long dead silence hanged over their heads as they contemplated the new facts concerning the clan heiress. The one of the trio finally broke the silence.

"Wow, I had definitely not seen that coming." Asami muttered, her voice filled with the incredulity. She was proceeding to gulp the sake from her cup in one go, her statement summarized up Michiko's current situation accurately. Mai snorted in agreement, she too copied Asami's action to drink the sake.

Smiling tiredly, Michiko reaffirmed, "Indeed."

With like that, she mirrored her two friends' action to gulp the sake in one go. It was a gross, massive understatement of the century, indeed.

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**A/N: **Whoo, A first update of this new year, 2015! Ah, It appeared that our seemly perfect, unflappable Shihoin clan head was not so perfect, isn't it? Remember that she's still human, she even have a stress limit, just she had a higher melting point compared to other people. Fortunately, Michiko had the two good friends see her weak moments and supporting her.

This update had a reference/connection to a previous chapter 10, Tale which Michiko mentioned that the two people was on this secret. This was how Asami and Mai knew this secret. Well, it look like we solved one mystery on how two people knew Masumi's secret, although there was still many mysteries/intrigues left to solve especially the Shihoin elders and Kaede person.

So far we learn that Asami and Mai were Michiko's best friends from their childhood, they knew her so well no matter she wore her facade. Mai was mute due to her injury, can communicate by using a sign language. Interesting, really! The Shihoin Clan were definitely a full of the colorful, diverse women. :)

Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter! Please kindly review this chapter, your reviews helped my muses popping out the more upcoming chapters!


	24. Voyeurs

**Summary**: The perverts especially the ones whose hobby to peeping, should learn a number one rule; Never peeping on the hot spring occupied with the dangerous women especially the ones from the Shihoin Clan.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: swearing and some suggestive things

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_Ohhh! What these such lovely, marvelous and heavenly assets they have!_ A perverted thought crossed his mind, he crouched on the thick branch that towering over above the walled steamy hot spring. A stupid, perverse grin was spreading wide on his face, he quickly wiped off a trail of his red blood dripping lightly from his nose. He had to move further forward on his toes in order to see better.

He was letting out the girly giggles from his mouth as he caught a tantalizing glimpse of the soft-looking blossom that obscured by the thick steams.

The man yelped in surprise as the branch suddenly shook violently underneath his feet. It caused him losing his footing and fell forward due to his overreaching position. He found himself pummeling toward the earth.

He grunted in pain as his face fell flat on the ground and his butt raising high in the air; he was spawning out in the undignified heap. He raised up off the ground, his hand rubbing his sore face; his eyes clenching in pain. His hand stopped rubbing as he noticed the giggling and chattering sounds ceasing down to the non-existence.

_Uh oh. _He opened and raised his eyes slowly. The brown eyes met the blue-green eyes.

There was a familiar woman standing in a front of him. In a wrapped towel that covered her barely. And her luminous silky hair glistered with the water.

"Hi." He croaked out.

"Oh, hello Sasuke-san... what did you do here?" She greeted him calmly, too calm for his taste. It certainly sent him on the edge.

A man now revealed, Sasuke Sarutobi gulped in fear as he saw the sickly sweet smile appearing on the water dripping and barely covering Shihoin heiress.

"W-well, you s-see, I'm trying to birdwatching the birds!" Sasuke attempted to lie. He knew that his poorly attempted lie didn't working on her.

"Really? That's interesting..did you happen to see the birds with green feathers?"

Was it his imagination or Masumi prowled slowly toward him? Unfortunately for him, the visage of her barely towel covering body and her hip swaying hypnotically had him completely immobile.

"A-ah, not really. I-I think that they are hard to spot because they're blended with the g-green leaves. M-maybe I should try to find another s-spot to g-get better results." He chuckled nervously.

"Oh, that's too bad. You see, I travel a lot before my clan moved here. One day, I stumbled upon an interesting monkey that resemble you a lot."

"R-really, How came that monkey reminding you of me?" He asked warily, feeling the dreading feeling form in his gut.

"That monkey loved to lurk around the hot spring, always seen around when the girls were there. What a pervert monkey it was. I suspected that he was a monkey summon, from that way he behaved around the girls. No way in hell I allowed this behavior around these girls." Masumi said, her nose wrinkled in distaste.

He froze. Her description of the monkey awfully sounded like someone he knew, specifically the one of his summons whom he was often indulged the questionable hobby with when he was younger.

"So I turned myself to became a bait as a trap to draw that monkey out, so I could catch him by casting a genjustu over him." Masumi paused, intending for the dramatic effect.

"What did you do to him?" He was slowly swallowing a lump in his throat.

"Oh, I made him saw me castrate him in a _very_ painful way. Pity, he managed to escape me before I lay my punches on him." She said cheerfully, putting an extra emphasis on 'very' word.

A sudden comprehension stuck him. He once had his own partner in crime in a form of the monkey summon named Gokun who helped him discover the wonder of the female body when his puberty started. One day, Gokun suddenly refused to visit their favorite spot to spy on the naked girls. When he asked him why, Gokun went pale in the several shades that he never thought the monkey skin could possibly pale that much. His furry body curled himself, his arms hugged around the folded legs. He began to rock forth and back, the pathetic whimpering and mumblings spilled forth from his trembling, pale lips. Sasuke barely made a sense of his incomprehensible babbling.

Only a few words that he could make out of his traumatized friend's babbling were 'a blue-green eyed monster' and 'my precious family jewels'. That latter phrase had him cringing in sympathy. He could see that his monkey friend managed to escape with his, um precious thing intact. He assumed that his attacker was probably a kunoichi. It was no way that the civilian could spot the difference between the summoning creature and ordinary creature. Only the sensors and the people whose had the experience with the summoning creatures could tell the subtle difference between the summoning creatures and ordinary animals.

Since that event, he mentioned the hot spring within his friend's hearing range every time, the monkey flinched at that phrase and refused to go to the hot spring ever since then.

Now, It apparently appeared that the Shihoin heiress was 'a blue-green eyed monster' from that incident and culprit behind Gokun's sudden transformation from a pervert to a monk.

He suspected that Masumi knew that it was one of his summons since his contract with the Monkey Summon was a common knowledge. He also had a gut feeling that she also referred the monkey to him as well.

"You're not only talking about that monkey, do you? You also are talking about me, too." He said as he slowly backed away from the dangerous predator. He suddenly couldn't move. He looked down, only finding a sight of his feet encasing with the thick rocks. He looked up, then gazing over her shoulder. He saw a familiar, partly naked blind woman who remained in the hot water.

Her long, smooth and soft-looking leg raised up. She bent forward toward her lifted feet, her fingers casually picking something stuck in between her toes. Sasuke would happily drool at the sight of her lovely leg, had he not been distracted by the incoming danger in a form of the angry woman. Feeling his glance on her, Ishiko stopped picking on her looked up to meet his gaze.

Ishiko then was flashing at him, her shark-like smirk reeking of the sadistic glee; her pearl white teeth bared viciously.

_Oh shit! I am in a deep trouble._ A brown haired man thought, sweating profusely. He now couldn't escape from an incoming danger! He was being stuck between the hard place and rock, literally and figuratively.

"Oh yes shit, you are in a deep trouble." Masumi parroted his thought exactly, almost if she was reading his mind perfectly. He gulped. She just smiled darkly. She was prowling closer more than before toward a terrific, shriveling man as she slowly covered and messaged her dominant fist with her other hand.

"Sorry?" He offered weakly, his voice came out the unmanly, mousy squeak.

Then, a sharp, shrill wail in agony could be heard all over Konoha. It made the men wincing and cringing in sympathy. They instinctively concurred that universal wail; it must be a sign of one of their fellow males made a foolish mistake to provoke the female's wrath. Judging how a pitch of that male wail went that impossibly high, it meant that this male was punished by the angry woman in a really, really painful way.

_Thank kami! They were glad that they weren't in that poor man's shoes._ That collective thought shared all by the males, both civilians and ninjas alike.

Meanwhile, on the newly furbished academy's roof, the three young children were startled and paused their conversation, their heads turned toward the direction where the faint male scream originated from.

"What the hell is that sound? It sounds like somebody died a horrible death." A bewildered glass wearing boy said.

A brown haired boy slapped his forehead with his hand and groaned loudly, which caused other two persons turning around and looking at him. He knew that scream everywhere. He cried out exasperatedly, "It's my dad. He did it again!"

A blond girl with a bun on a top of her head snorted in distaste, "Good riddance to him, I hope it's Shihoin people to catching him." Indeed, she despised the perverts especially the ones to peeping on the women at the hot spring. Fortunately for her and other females, the Shihoin women shared their disliking to have the males peeping on them in their private setting. She was so glad that the Shihoin Clan chose to reside here in Konoha.

Their sensing ability made the Shihoin kunoichis very effective and excellent deterrents to the voyeurs everywhere.

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**A/N**: Lol, Woes to the peeping toms everywhere in Konoha! Beware of the Shihoin women and their anti-pervert radars! Bahaha! *evil laughter* Although I feel bad for poor Jiraiya, he'll probably have a hard time to go near the hot spring. If you guess these three characters in the ending are Homura, Hiruzen and Koharu. Then, you are correct! *wink*

I hope that you enjoy this crack update.

Please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews motivate me producing more incoming chapters!


	25. Silence

**Summary:** An elder visited Michiko.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Michiko-sama?" A sagely familiar voice bought Michiko out of her musing. She shifted her head slightly in a direction that a voice originated from. She already was aware of her vistor's chakra signature long before she called her name.

"Come in!" Michiko called out. A person walked in, it turned out that it was an elderly woman.

The elderly woman wore the black eye-patch decorating with their white clan crest on her right eye. She lost her right eye in the battle when she was young. Despite a loss of her right eye, she still continued her ninja career for an impressive 60 years until she decided to retire decade ago. She was shorter than her Clan Head but more bulkier. Her hair was completely gray. Her face had the wrinkles along with the slightly sagging cheeks. She lived up at the impressive age of 72 and still had the plenty of years left in her.

Michiko greeted, smiling warmly, "Greeting, Kaede-obasan. Would you like to drink tea with me?"

"Michiko-sama, I am glad to see you doing well after your daughter's birth. And yes, I would like to have a tea, please." Kaede returned a pleasant smile. She was glad to see a younger woman who seemly recovered well after her labor few weeks ago.

Kaede Shihoin was a popular elder and well-liked by the majority of their clan. Her practical sensibility and wisdom were very much appreciated by her younger clan members. She was once nicknamed "The One-Eyed Hawkeye" by her clan and enemies alike in her youth, for she was a deadly, talented archer whose specializing in extremely long ranged offense. She was also accomplished healer. She currently had the two apprentices under her. Her feisty granddaughter, Kagome Shihoin and a cocky youth named Seido Shihoin. They both were very gifted in the art of archery. Although her granddaughter was more tending toward the art of the healing which Kaede did not mind. In other hand, Seido was more superior to Kagome in a term of the marksmanship. For this reason, Kaede chose him to carry a part of her moniker, Hawkeye.

"Come here, you can sit there, please.' A younger woman waved her extending hand downward to the empty seat in a front of her, inviting her to sit down.

Kaede slowly walked across the room from the entrance doors. Her walking was steady and confident, but, at a same time that she was mindful of her old body's limit. She gracefully settled down on the empty seat where Michiko gestured her to sit on. Her sharp nose picked up the familiar aroma of the green tea. A cup was already filled with a hot tea. Her slightly winkle hands reached out the tea cup.

She bought it to her lip, savoring the taste of the green tea. She sipped her tea a couple times, then lowered her cup on her lap. Her eye was on a younger woman firmly.

"I assume that you're not going to tell them about her yin chakra, then?" Kaede spoke softly. She referred to the few elders whose their personalities left a lot to be desired. Her sharp, experienced eye noticed that Michiko halted her drinking for a second in response to her statement and resumed drinking her tea afterward.

"I believe that I told them, it's none of their business." She said as she continued to sip her tea.

In simpler words, she politely told them to back off or else she'll sack the Terror Triplet Sisters on them. Michiko covered her smirk with her tea cup as she recalled the priceless blanching expressions on the elders' faces. After all, the disgruntled elders still hadn't forgotten that they received the end stick of that triplet's so called "tender hospitality".

Fortunately for her, the triplet sisters really liked her because Michiko was, they quoted in their exact wordings, "not stuck up in her ass" or "not shoving her big nose into others' businesses" unlike to these nosy elders.

"I see..." An old woman eyed her with the amusing glint in her knowing eye. Her fellow elders groused about Michiko and her threat to sack the triplet sisters on them. She secretly rolled her eye at their bemoaning about the Clan Head's refusal to share the information. Honestly, why did her fellow elders not understand that everyone in her clan entitled to keep their personal secrets? Oh, right. 'Knowledge is Power' was the Shihoin Clan's motto and entrenched deeply in their mental thinking. Some of her fellow elders took their clan motto little bit too far.

Unlike her fellow elders, Kaede was not snoopy person by the nature. She was not going to demand her Clan Head about her daughter's condition. Still, she had a slight suspicion about Michiko knew a reason behind Masumi's unusual condition. She could ask Michiko but, Michiko told her that she refused to answer the elders' inquiry about Masumi's strange yin chakra. That would mean that Michiko will not verify her suspicion about her daughter. So, no answer, then. She respected her decisions as long as it did not involve the endangerment of their clan.

_Well, I suppose I could trust her. She did the admirable job to handle the Clan Head position along with the stress and the pressures from my fellow elders for the past few years. _Kaede mused thoughtfully.

Kaede exhaled the lovely scent of the green tea. A peaceful silence settled between them. They did not need the words sharing between them.

After all, the proverbial saying, 'Silence is golden' was certainly appropriate for this current mood.

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**A/N: ** Well, so far we learn that there are some elders in the Shihoin Clan are very nosy and possibly...control freaks. In the clan politic, there always are some elders disagreeing with the clan leader. Sometimes they would be compared to the vultures looking for a weakness moment. Michiko was not a person to be pushing around by the people.

And, yes. Kaede and Kagome were the characters from Inuyasha. They were grandma and granddaughter. Let's saying that Kaede was considering 'the cool and badass grandma ever with a capability to kick the people's ass' by the Shihoin people. ;) As for Kagome...well, you'll going to learn more later in the upcoming chapters. ;) And yes, our first Shihoin guy named Seido, he was based on Clint Barton aka Hawkeye from the Marvel Comic. His name meant accuracy, for based on his extraordinary marksmanship. Cool eh? Mmm...though I might mention he was coming with a package in a form of a foreign, badass assassin. *wink*

Mmm, it appears that the Shihoin Clan have their own pranksters - the triplet sisters whose everybody called them, "The Terror Triplet Sisters." Yep, these sisters inspired by the Weasley Twin from Harry Potter. No doubt that these sisters triplet were the ones of the mischievous relatives that Ishiko mentioned back in a previous chapter 15. ;) I hope that you enjoyed the badass women (and Seido, too) in the Shihoin Clan. Please review this chapter, your reviews boost my motivation to write more!

Translation Note: Seido meant Accuracy. Kaede meant Maple.


	26. Enthusiasm

**Summary:** Masumi was learning that her supposed ditzy teacher really knew a thing or two about her specialty.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Masumi gasped softly, her lungs absorbed the precious air greedily as her assaulter finally released her from her hug of death. Stumblingly, she made herself distancing a little bit away from her new teacher, just staying out of the range where the older woman could grab with her hands.

Her grip was insanely strong! She thought that she might start to understand the poor cat whom her former team from her past life, chased and caught it for the Fire Daimyo's wife. No wonder that screeching cat desperately wanted to escape from that overly affectionate woman whose seemly did not know her own strength when she smothered her poor cat with the hugs of her love.

The heiress doubted that she could escape from this ditzy woman in the same way the cat escaped from its owner. After all, her family was taught to tracking the intended targets with their bloodline limit since their birth. Her new teacher likely knew how to track and caught her in a matter of the seconds since all of the capable warriors in her clan both veterans and novices memorized her unique chakra signature. Besides, it was kinda hard to escape, especially she lived in the island filled with the people being a literally walking radars.

Rangiku ignored her new student's action to put some distance away from her. To Masami's confusion, her teacher sat down on the floor, her legs folded under her bottom.

"Oh, don't be shy! Masumi-chan! You don't have to come close to me, you can sit right on that spot there!" Rangiku patted her hand on the floor lightly, gestured her to sit on the floor. Reluctantly, Masumi obeyed her suggestion and mirrored her teacher's action to take a seat on the same place where she was standing on.

Rangiku said brightly, "Alrighty! Now, Now let's our first lesson start, shall we?"

Masumi adopted the attentive student pose that a habit she frequently did that when she was young academy student in her previous life, her ears was ready to listen and her blue-green eyes looked alert. Rangiku inwardly squealed at how cute her student's attempt to look like a good student was.

_Okay, A lesson time! _Rangiku thought, her blue-gray eyes sparkled with anticipation as she prepared to ask the first question.

A first question from her lips, threw Masumi for a loop. "What do you think what weapons we have in our pockets, without have the real weapons brought with us?"

"Uh... our beauty?" Masumi answered, obviously thought that it was an easy answer. Which was undeniably true since she saw that the females in her clan were beautiful in the class of its own. Her own mother's beauty was very regal that easily made any female noble civilians' beauty looking paler compared to her. She herself inherited that kind of beauty from her mother, which boosted her ego a little bit.

"Well, it could work." But much to her surprise, Rangiku added, "But, it's not always working."

"Why not?" She was confused. In her former life, the female-only class in the Academy taught her the importance of using the female appearance as a weapon. According to Suzume-sensei from her kunoichi-only class, the beauty was a main factor in the seduction mission and you could get off easy if your appearance was appealing to the males.

"There's a plenty of the strong willed men resisting the beautiful woman even me." She spoke like if she experienced the encounters with these types of men before. There's a tiny wistful tone evidenced in her speech. Masumi wasn't sure what exactly triggered that wistful tone, and assumed that it was from her teacher's past. She chose to remain silent on that, knowing that it was none of her business to privy that information.

Flipping the switch, the wistful tone shifted into a lighthearted tone, Rangiku continued, "True, our beauty could be useful, but it's not what I'm looking for. Ssooo, nice trying! Give me another answer!"

It stumped the twelve years old girl. It made an older woman giggled at her baffled expression. Oh! the wonder of the bafflement! She loved to confound the new student every time she asked that question.

"You don't know? Oh my! My cute student was supposed to be smart!" She exclaimed dramatically, her hand on her heart and the back of her other hand on her forehead pretending that she was horrified by the revelation, "Oh, worry not! I shall save you from your ignorance! I shall enlighten you the secrets of the seduction. A real answer is..."

She paused for the few seconds, intending for the dramatic effect.

"There's no weapon in the feminine armory to which men are so vulnerable as they are to a smile." The older woman revealed; that way she made her statement sounded like the words of wisdom.

"Smile? Really?" Masumi was skeptical. And surprised too.

"Yep! You'd be surprised that how times they went putty under my hands every time I flashed them with the sweet, innocent smile or seductive smile at them. Even the strong-willed men fall prey to the smile. So, your first lesson is to learn how to smile!" The older woman ended happily. Masumi swore that she thought that she saw the sparkly, happy aura glowing around her teacher.

"But, I already know how to smile!" Masumi protested, bewildered by her bizarre instruction. Kami, she thought that Gai was the living embodiment of the eccentricity. Rangiku took the eccentricity to a whole new level. Masumi did not think that she ever met a person like her who embraced the art of the seduction in a same way as Gai embraced the Power of Youth. Rangiku Shihoin was really something else.

"Ah-ha! True, but did you know how to express the genuine facial expression to a targeted shinobi who obviously trained to spot the fake expressions? And without him getting caught on your seduction attempt?" Rangiku countered, her blue-gray eyes twinkled with a knowing glint.

Masumi paused at her question, her eyebrows burrowed thoughtfully. She admitted that her eccentric teacher certainly made a good point.

Sure, she could fake her smile, but, in her previous lifetime as Sakura Haruno, she had a very little experience in the seduction missions. As a matter of a fact, she had this type of mission once, in an attempt to seduce the male civilian, lucky for her, who was very weak-willed. She herself never tried to seduce the enemy shinobi before. That area was more right up in her best friend, Ino's alley.

Perhaps, there's a more to her teacher than meets the eye. She seemly knew her stuff. She sounded like she had the knowledge well-versed in the human psychology and an expert in reading the facial and body language.

Well, she maybe could give a try to learn something from Rangiku despite her quirkiness. Her teaching could be a lifesaver if she found herself falling into the situation where it required the seduction.

"I suppose so, you are right. Rangiku-sensei." Masumi admitted grudgingly. Her teacher beamed with the satisfaction.

"Ah, my cute student finally sees my wisdom!" She exaggerated her joyful tone playfully, which causing her student rolling her eyes exasperatedly at her silly exclamation. However, the next words from her teacher's bubbly mouth caused Masumi taking her words back instantly.

And at the same time, she really wished the ground would swallow her up. "When you master a number one lesson, the next lesson is you will going to learn how to flirt!" Rangiku proclaimed with her tone filling with the Gai-like enthusiasm.

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**A/N:** Cheer for another update from me! This chapter was follow-up from the previous _Chapter 16 -_ _Eccentric_, a continuation of the Seduction Lessons with the Shihoin Clan's top seduction specialist, Rangiku Shihoin. Lol, poor Masumi! She had to put up with her teacher's quirkiness. So far, what do you thinking of this chapter? I would love to know what my readers think of Masumi's first lesson with Rangiku!

Anyway, please give the feedback kindly. Your reviews are a source of this authoress's motivation to write more!


	27. Moon

**Summary:** An enemy's reaction to the news of the Shihoin Clan joining Kohona.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A humanoid creature stared blankly at the black, night sky, sat on the tallest one of the giant rib bones that jutted out of the thick forest and it belonged to the colossal creature whose once long time ago was roaming on the living land in the past.

A frown appeared on the his face as he contemplated over the recent information concerning the Shihoin Clan was joining into the new village. For a first time since the split-up of that man's three children, The Shihoin Clan now was in a same room with the Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan. It was a troublesome development. He preferred that clan remained isolated from the rest of the world, it would make everything easier, according to his scheme, had it not for their heiress unknowingly disrupted his scheme to some degree.

He designed the biological weapon agent. He planted it in the unsuspecting carrier whom was the unsuspected merchant that was more likely to contract the people including his targets. Anyone beside the targeted ones were just the collective damages to him. The Land of Water had the highest population of the bloodline users in the world. Some of the clans had the potentials to threaten his plan. Controlling these infestations was the extra bonus in his eyes. Its true purpose was eliminating the two-third population of the Shihoin Clan, most of the targets were healthy. Even if the afflicted ones managed to survive his weapon, he made sure that his creation left an extra, special and nasty side-effect inflicting on these survivors.

Infertility. That side-effect would not affect on the survivors who weren't the members of the Shihion Clan. He customized his weapon to 'release' its side-effect when it contracted the unique chakra of the Shihoin survivors in case.

It was enough to ensure the Shihoin Clan never able to recovering from the massive, irreversible plunge in their ranks, and would go to the extinction in the next century. It would spend up the extinction process into the few decades if he subtly manipulated that clan's enemies to destroy them one by one.

Yet that young heiress managed to cure his creation, including that side-effect. True, his creation did kill some of his targets. But the result was less than what he desired. A thought of someone managed to defeat his creation made him hissing in displeasure. How dare that filthy human destroyed his marvelous work and caused a setback in his plan at least a few decades!

But there's at least a silver lining in the cloud. He could salvage that plan and always had the backup plan in his sleeve. The Shihoin Clan was now vulnerable without that damn, powerful and massive nature-chakra powered genjustu surrounding around that island. He couldn't enter the island because that pesky genjustu constantly redirected him away from that island.

A second reason was, he couldn't be near the Shihoin Clan and its people, because of their damn, annoying ability to sense the negative emotions. They would become aware of his presence instantly if he made a step on the invisible, extremely long ranged borderline of their powerful sensory perception, which he grudgingly admitted that his own sensory perception was much inferior compared to their bloodline. He made a mistake to enter the one of their strategical bases that was on the Land of Water for a spying purpose centuries ago and almost caught by them. Thankfully, his quick thinking and vast experience from his long lifespan assisted him escaping from them. Barely.

Since then, he never repeated that mistake again. That incident was only one where he made his mistake for a first time since his creation. Truthfully, it was considered nothing but a minor mistake, since it did not ruin his plan. However, his first mistake was quite memorable and something that should not happen to him in his egotistic eyes. Consequently, he developed the rather strong grudge against that clan and plotted the decimation of the Shihoin Clan at the same time as he continued to proceed toward his main goal. Which it led to the creation of the biological weapon to weaken that clan and let their enemies taking out the Shihoin survivors one by one.

Then he did not account the factor of the Shihoin heiress being the extraordinary healer. That was his second mistake. His ego screamed at him in rage that his second mistake was blasphemy, all because that blasted Shihoin Clan! He refused to be defeated by that damn, puny thorn in a form of the heiress of the Shihoin Clan!

He might lose a battle to that trash clan for a second time, but he still hadn't lost the war yet.

A creature stared at a white full moon longingly and whispering softly. "Mother, Just be patient. Soon you'll be revived back and rule this wrenching land. Then we shall be together forever."

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**A/N:** Ooohh! Kuku, you did not expect that, did you? In the canon manga, he did mention that he was behind the countless wars between the clans throughout the long history. He clearly implied that he was behind the extinctions of the countless hundred clans (including the Shihoin Clan), all for a sake of his goal to revive his mother. Ruthless, indeed.

Anyway, please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews are the source of the author's motivation to write.


	28. Black Eye

**Summary:** Masumi never thought that she was about experiencing the worst kind of the pain.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A teal-tinted green haired 27 years old woman groaned loudly and gritted her teeth as the unstoppable waves of the pain swept over her. Oh goddess, too much pain, it felt like a watermelon-sized object trying to push though her lower parts. She wanted it out of her now!

The metal horizontal poles that helped her clutching on something, nearly bent under the crushed pressure of her monstrous strength that she unconsciously channeled her hands with.

_'Oh yes, I'm so going to punish him for putting me through this!'_ Masumi thought viciously, her teeth gritted and her sadistic imagination cheerfully conjured the all painful kinds of the punishments for her specific target; She completely forgot that she also participated voluntarily in the baby-making process and agreed to turn off her birth control seal in order to conceive.

Her sadistic side whispered darkly into her ears,_ 'Mmm, maybe she should invent the justu that involves the gender change and the reversal swap of their position. See how he likes it AND experience all kinds of the stuffs in her shoes during her pregnancy, Fufufu!' _

Inwardly she giggled evilly at her thought. Yep, her prank-loving relatives and her best friend rubbed off on her a little bit much.

_Ohoh~! That's so brilla_\- 'Her sweaty face made a constipated expression in grimace; she inhaled sharply as she felt a much stronger than average pain plowed into her gut. Hard. She abstractly heard the two midwives encouraging her taking the deep breaths and pushing more.

Right. Better concentrating on pushing her baby out of her body first. Once her labor was over, then she would deliver her wicked right hook to her husband's face as soon as he materialized within her vision range. A black eye would be looking lovely on his handsome face though.

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**A/N:** Ooohh! It appeared that in a far somewhere at some point in the future our time traveler now is married and about receiving her first newborn child! A million dollar question we all want to ask; WHO is her husband and father of her child? Well, I guess that we'll find out in due time. *wink wink*

I hope that you like this short chapter. Anyway, please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews are the source of the author's motivation to write.


	29. Fascinating

**Summary:** Masumi was surprised that the Shihoin Clan had a quite extensive knowledge on the chakra and its unique properties. And got to know a bit interesting tidbits about her own clan.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Fascinating.

That's what a first word came to her mind as she was reading a fairly thick book. The six years old heiress spent a couple of hours there since her mother first bought her and later left her alone under the supervision of the woman named Yomiko Shihoin whose her responsibility to oversee the legendary library. The Library of the Benzation rapidly became her number one favorite place. There's so many interesting books there!

Within these books, the trove of the priceless treasures waited to be discovered by the eager, inquisitive hands of the Shihoin heiress. Like this thick book that she found and was currently reading, it titled _'The Unique Properties of the Yang Chakra.'_ It was written by Shihoin Myūzu, who lived centuries ago before her time.

Some of the tidbits were completely new to her. For an example, she was reading a current chapter talking about the Yang Chakra was powering the vitality of the living being. Their bodies' self healing process depended on the density of the yang chakra. It was also related to how much stamina they have and how long they live. More denser the yang chakra is, more higher stamina and long lifespan they likely have. The Uzumaki Clan was a classic example of the result of having the most densest yang chakra out all of the ninja clans in the Ninja World.

To her surprise, according to this chapter that she was reading, explained that her own clan would be considered falling into the similar category as the Uzumaki Clan, although her clan's yang chakra density was inferior than the Uzumaki clan, but superior than the most of the ninja clans. According to her book, the males usually had the yang chakra in a high amount naturally compared to the females who had a low amount of the yang chakra.

In simple words, the females were weaker than their male counterparts in the term of the physical strength and stamina. A same theory applied to the Yin Chakra, the females had the yin chakra more than the males; Hence the females had a better chakra control and better adapted to the spiritual aspect of the chakra compared the males and vice versa.

Her clan was a unique case. The stamina and physical prowess of the females in her clan was higher than normal, much higher compared the ordinary kunoichis. It meant that they could able to hold their direct taijustu match against their male counterparts longer than the average kunoichis. Only the members of the Uzumaki Clan and the stronger than average males outclassed them in the term of the stamina and the physical strength.

Interestingly, an authoress mentioned that her clan would be easily par on with the Uzumaki Clan in the same capacity, had it not been for the slight difference on how their bodies used the yang chakra in their own way. The Uzumaki body used the yang chakra to power its vitality to the greatest extent possible. That's a main reason why the Uzumaki Clan had the ridiculously long lifespan and could live up to 150 years, or on the rare occasions they could reach to 200 years if they did not participate actively in the dangerous lifestyle of being a ninja.

Now, in her clan's case, unlike the Uzumaki Clan, their bodies spent the half of their yang chakra devoted to their stamina. That's why the Shihoin kunoichis were much stronger than the average kunoichis from the ninja clans and capable to fight on par with their male counterparts. The Shihoin Clan's typical life expectancy was usually 120 years, or less. Much lesser than the average Uzumaki lifespan, but more longer than the ordinary human lifespan.

So, where was the other half of their yang chakra going to? To her astonishment, her book revealed that their bodies devoted the other half of the yang chakra to their reproductive system. In other words, the fertility in the women of the Shihoin clan was extremely potent and caused their childbearing years, extending 20 years more than the average human childbearing years. Its potent effect also applied to the virility of the male Shihoin as well. However, the authoress added the note that both female and male Shihoins tended to produce the female offspring more often rather than male offspring.

Myūzu theorized that having that unusual amount of the yang chakra in their reproduction system caused this condition. According to this book, it was likely stemmed from their bloodli-.

She jerked up her blue-green eyes away from her book that attracted her attention so much that she did not notice a foreign chakra signature came close to her until her sensory bloodline poked her awareness insistently and hard enough to make her finally notice another chakra signature approached too close within her comfort zone.

The little girl saw a familiar form of the legendary library's overseer standing over her. She gently closed her book with the reverence. She went back to look at an older woman.

"Masumi-sama, I see that you enjoy this book." The library overseer said with the amused expression. She was a a slender woman with the slight curves, her hair had a lovely, soft shade of the pastel green and her pale blue eyes twinkled with the kindness and amusement.

"Ah, Yomiko-chan! Yes, This book is very interesting. I learn a lot from this one." Masumi told her in the exciting tone. Yomiko smiled at her enthusiasm.

"Indeed, it is. This book is very good. Many people considered it a well-recommended book..." An older woman continued. "Anyway, I believe that your time to stay here is up. It's a time to go now."

"Aw, Yomiko-chan! can I stay here just a little longer? " A blue-green eyed girl pouted cutely in hope to convince an older woman let her stay in this marvelous place little longer.

"I'm sorry, it's a rule. Everyone must obey that rule for their own good or otherwise it do us no good if we stay here for too long. Asami is going to pick you up soon." Yomiko said firmly with the nonsense tone, not being swaying easily by the clan heiress.

Sensing her firm refusal, Masumi looked a bit disappointing. She then brightened slightly when an idea came to her.

"Can I borrow this book?"

"Of course, you can. But just limit to one book."

"Just one? That's it?"

"Yes. And you should return this book to this in due a month. Please treat this book carefully. If you dare to damage this book in any forms, well then... I'm certainly sure that your mother will allow me punish you despite your rank as the Clan Heiress." Yomiko said ominously when she emphasized the latter two sentences.

Masumi gulped at being received the ominous warning from the supposed sweet woman. She could feel the dangerous vibes from Yomiko's chakra.

"Um..if I did, what kind of the punishment you punish me with?" Masumi dared to ask bravely, her eyes wide and her arms closed around a book protectively.

Yomiko just smiled sweetly and answered, "Ban you from entering from this library for three months and you must completely replace the damaged parts depending on the level of the damage to this book. All the repairs by yourself. If this kind of damage is irreversible, then we do have a copy of that original book just in a case. You must make a new second book by duplicating the backup copy. In other words, you will write the exact words down from the backup copy with your own hands. I heard this kind of punishment is_ very helpful_ to improve your calligraphy."

Masumi winced at that. It sounded a bit harsh but fair. It would install a good lesson in younger children to respect the books. Nobody wanted to get banned from this wonderful place and went though the old fashioned process to repair the damaged book.

"I solemnly promise that I will return this book in a perfect condition." She told the older woman with a totally serious expression on her face.

Yomiko smiled widely, "Good! I'm sure that you will." Then she paused in a second as her sensory range detected something.

"Ah, Asami-chan is here! Now, it's a time to leave here." Yomiko gestured her to stand up and come with her. Reluctantly, Masumi was standing up from her comfortable chair along a thick book in her arms.

They both walked across the hall and ahead toward the doors. Masumi's mind wandered back to a book that she previously read earlier before Yomiko interrupted her reading.

She was forward to finish reading this interesting book when she had a free time. After all, the Shihoin Clan, where the women allowed to express their curiosity freely, spent the hundreds and hundreds years to write down on their own books about their study and experimenting on the chakra in their spare times.

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**A/N: **Ohh, How interesting! Masumi definitely learns some interesting stuffs about the Shihoin chakra. The women in the Shihoin Clan are definitely intelligent especially Myuzu Shihoin sounds like that she is a sort of the scientist to study the chakra. Pretty cool, eh? ;)

I hope that you like the Yang Chakra theory stuffs. Anyway, please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews feeds my motivation to write more!


	30. Ally

**Summary:** The Clan Leaders learnt why the Shihoin leader was deserving her renowned moniker, The Serene Lady.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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An extremely heavy air of tension surrounding the sitting people around the round table. So heavy that any normal civilian would suffocate under the pressure of the almighty and strongest ninjas in a same room. The air filled with the scent of the tobacco and alcohols.

A Sarutobi leader blew the smoke rings from his mouth into the air, his hand held the cards securely and his other hand held his tobacco casually. Smiling lazily, he looked around to see his opponents to gauge their reactions.

A Hyuuga leader carefully examined his opponents with his white, pearl-like eyes like a predator looking for a weakness.

A Nara leader looked bored, holding the cards. However, the glints in his slanted eyes were sharp and alert.

Hashirama buzzed with the eager anticipation. Oh, he loved the thrill of playing the poker game!

Madara stared with the sheer intensity in the attempt to intimidate his opponents and his smirk remained confident.

A lone green long-haired woman was only one among the men to sit and play the poker game with them. Under the normal situation if the general civilian population saw a lone woman played a poker game with the men like that, they would look scandalized by her daring action. It was not proper that a woman should participate in this kind of game.

However, this lone woman wasn't ordinary by the general standard. She was the Clan Head of the Shihoin Clan. Despite being a proper lady, she frankly don't give the damn about what the civilians thought of her. This poker game required her complete attention to focus. Yet, she remained serene and casaully looked at each players' state, her sharp eyes picked out the interesting visual information from her opponents. She suppressed her sensory perception in order to keep the game fair and more interesting.

This was a first poker game between the clan leaders. No bloodline limit allowed in this game. Just a pure skill and luck. Some of the clan leaders already eliminated due to their loss of the cards or their own money. Now, there was only six people left and still playing the poker game.

It was her turn to play.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen. I'm going to say that you lost a lot of money. Royal Flush." Michiko said serenely, her still-ever smile remained on her face and her hands carefully laying out her thump cards.

That caused to wipe off the smirk off Madara's face instantly.

There were the varying reactions of shock and surprise as well as the exclamations of 'what!' came from both the participators and the audience in response to Michiko's unexpected victory.

The male participators groaned and grumbled as they saw her dishing out the genuine royal flush. The male viewers, who were each clan leaders' their personal bodyguard and some were the clan leaders whose already eliminated earlier, groaned in the disappointment since the none of the viewers didn't bet on Michiko winning the poker game.

So, it resulted that no viewers won the bet. The female bodyguard of the Shihoin leader is the only one who did not express the interest in getting involved in betting which one is the winner.

"Aw! Damn it! Mito-chan was going to kill me." Hashirama bemoaned over his loss, as he reluctantly gave the winner his money along with his fellow clan leaders.

"Troublesome." A Nara leader muttered, mimicking the tanned man's action. Despite his loss to her, he actually enjoyed the game. Maybe he could invite her to play the Shogo game with him? She could give him a challenge that he could enjoy.

"..." A Hyuuga leader didn't say anything and stoically gave away his money. It was his own way to save his dignity.

Sasuke looked a bit disappointing as he gave his fair amount of the money to the winner. Michiko accepted her winnings from the males graciously.

Finishing give her his money, Madara looked at her suspiciously and said, "Michiko-dono, are you cheating?" A question that he asked her, caused the several ninjas' ears perked up in interest. Well, considering that the eavesdroppers' male pride strung and trashed thoroughly by their loss to a woman in a poker card game, it was understandable that they were interested in how the hell this woman managed to wipe the floor with them.

"No. I never attempted to cheat that way. I'm just average at playing the poker game. Perhaps I'm that lucky." She said modestly and had the gall to smile at him innocently. Her mute bodyguard, if Madara remembered correctly that Mai was her name, snorted at her reply. Madara could hear literally that there was _'yeah, right' _with a bite of the sarcasm in Mai's snort.

The male eavesdroppers made the face-fault expression when they heard her reply. Average at poker game? They did not think so that Michiko was the average poker player. From what they saw and played against her, Michiko was a total monster in the poker game.

Madara couldn't tell which one she was lying or completely honest. Her facial expression and body language did not falter at his accusation, not a single bit. He grudgingly admitted that her poker facade was really that good in the almost supernatural way. Way above his poker-face skill or even the Hyuuga pricks' poker-faces. Hell, even the Nara leader had a hard time to read her. Michiko Shihoin was really something else.

Secretly, Madara wondered if Michiko actually willed her facial muscles to freeze, so she wouldn't give away any visible tic in her face.

That way she handled the poker game translated into how she handled the battlefield as the war leader or even handled the dirty business in a form of the politics with the ease. She even didn't bat her eyelashes nor her serene smile faltered a bit when the poker game competition intensified tenfold, so much any ordinary ninja easily broke under the enormous pressure.

Damn, Michiko was completely terrifying, formidable opponent to face. They had secretly been glad that this woman was their ally, not turning around in the opposite way.

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**A/N: **Wow! A second update on the same day! This story reached 30 chapters mark. I never produce so many chapters for this story since the seven months after its creation! Love that way Michiko kicks their butt by beating them in the poker game? *wink* Well, she lived and spent with her clan full of the walking lie detectors all the times in her whole life. So she either learns to how do that poker face or that naturally good at make the poker face.

Hope that you enjoy the laugh at the males' expense in this chapter! Anyway, please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews feeds my motivation to write more!


	31. Bitter

**Summary:** The redhead girl was very determined to complete her personal quest.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Hey, Lin-obachan, who's your dad?"

The young, eight years old redhead girl blurted out straight out of nowhere, unable to hold back her curiosity anymore. She had to ask that question, so she could relieve the incessant curiosity that bothered her consciousness for many days. So, she asked Mito-obaachan about it. To her shock, her grandma figure clan-member refused to answer her question and simply told her that she won't answer her question for a sake of her old friend.

So, therefore her quest to find out who was Lin's dad began. She made a mental list of the people that she planned to ask that question.

She asked the old people first, such as the Sandaime Hokage and the long time ninjas about Lin's dad. After all, they knew Lin longer. It's a simple logic that they also knew Lin's dad, too. She didn't expecting that they all evaded the question by either claimed that they were too busy, changed the subject with their suspicious, nervous laughs or even tried to distract her with bribing her with her favorite food, Ramen.

Kami, they were just like Mito-obaachan when it came to that subject.

_Checking off a number one, asking the older ninjas failed!_

She tried to bring up that subject with the civilians. Much to her chagrins, she got the pretty same result from the civilians as their ninja counterparts did. The civilians eyed her, like she was crazy or something. One time, she asked an older civilian man that question, he froze upon hearing her name. His face went pale. He then proceeded to curl around himself and sobbed something about his poor cabbages being confiscated by that woman. She quickly left his sobbing form alone.

_Checking off a number two, asking the civilians failed!_

She felt the frustration and exasperation rolling into the one emotion running a course in her body. She ran out of the people on her mental list to ask! Her violet eyes then fell on the slightly older girl with a green hair tied in a short ponytail, looking around 15 years old who was walking and about passing beside her.

Suddenly she remembered that the 15 years old or something girl who passed beside her, had that distinctive green hair of the Shihion Clan. Lin was a member of the Shihoin Clan. Why not she could ask this older girl? Maybe she might find the answer in this older girl who was from the same clan as Lin. It could be a possibility that everyone in the same clan bounded to know each other as well as their parents, right?

She mentally added _'A number three, asking the member of the Shihoin Clan'_ in her imaginary list.

Better caught her right now before she lost her in the crowd!

So, she turned around, only finding upon the amused, curious blue eyes staring back at her. Huh? How did a teenager know that she was about to look for her?

Almost as if she answered her unspoken question, a teenager girl replied, "I felt the pretty strong curiosity from you involuntarily, and it's aiming for me. So... Uzumaki-chan, may I know what bring out that reaction out of you at a sight of me?"

Okay, well. Kushina was thinking that it was a bit creepy to know a teenage girl could sense her intention. Anyway, it made her mission a bit easier. "Well, yes. Shihoin-oneechan, I have a question about Lin-obachan. You know her, right?"

The older girl raised her eyebrow high to her hairline at a young academy student's inquiry about the one of the well known figures in her clan.

"Lin-sama? Yes, I do know her. Why do you want to know about her?"

"I'm just curious about Lin's dad. No one knew who was her dad. That's why I asked everybody! But!..." Kushina said exasperatedly, her chubby cheeks puffed in the childish annoyance.

"...Nobody doesn't want to answer my question!" She finished explaining and pouting at the ending of her speech.

"Ah, I see. So, you want to know who her father is? I think that most of them can't answer because they themselves don't know or probably afraid of Lin-sama and her wrath."

"Huh, really? Is she really that scary?"

"Yes, She is. In my clan, we don't ask each other about their fathers if they don't have fathers. It's not polite. Even I don't know the identity of Lin-sama's father. I think that my clan elders knew who her father is. If they did, I'm sure that they will not tell you when you ask them."

_Well, damn. Here goes a number four, asking the clan elders._

"Oh well, thanks for answering my questions, Shihoin-oneechan!" Kushina bowed gratefully at the older girl. The green haired teenager smiled at the adorable girl.

The older teenager replied pleasantly, "You're welcome. I'm sorry that we couldn't help you with that."

"That's fine! Don't worry, onee-chan! I'll find a way no matter hard it is, dattebane!"

"Alright, good luck with your search."

With like that, Kushina left the teenager girl alone.

_Checking off a number three and four, asking the member of the Shihoin clan and the clan elders failed!_

Now, what? She tempted to pull her red hair in a sheer frustration. Kami, what's with this Konoha and the people's suspicious evasiveness with Lin's father?! She never thought that finding out the identity of Lin's dad was that difficult! So if she couldn't ask everyone... then maybe if...

Her violet eyes widen as a brilliant idea struck her. Yes... yes! That's a brilliant idea! But, she had to look for him first.

Once he had been found, she then marched toward him with a purpose. Her rival blinked in confusion at her purposeful stride. She demanded her wimpy-looking rival about her target's whereabouts and forced him to lead her to the training place where her target frequently went to.

There! Here was the familiar form of the older woman with a neat, twisted bun tied back on her head who currently was middle in her daily stretching exercise.

_Success!_

She finally verged on completing her quest! All things she did need to complete her goal was, asking Lin a simple question that she wanted to ask for a long time.

A young boy with a blond hair looked at her in horror, his blue eyes open wide. Oh Kami! Did he hear what he thought what she was saying to Lin Shihoin?! Out all of the questions, she chose that question to ask the infamous Blind Earthbender's daughter?! He knew that asking this woman that question would be like someone asked for a death warrant.

It was an unspoken rule that everyone, even the orphans like him, who lived in Konoha, should never ask Lin that question, or bring Lin's other parentage into the conversation within Lin's hearing range. Even they talked about this subject outside of that woman's hearing range, the people still did not know who was Lin's other parentage. Likely, there's a possibility that a few selected people and maybe the Shihoin Clan might know who was Lin's father, but they remained tight-lipped. So, it resulted that the identity of Lin's father remained the one of the greatest mysteries in Konoha to this day.

Apparently, Kushina didn't get a note though her thick head.

"Kushina-chan! D-Don't ask her THAT question!" He half-stammered and half-squeaked in fear. In a fact, he looked like he was ready to bolt out of the cave. Kushina inwardly rolled her eyes at her prissy rival's fearful expression.

What a wimp Minato really was! That was proved further what a first impression of him came to her mind when she met him for a first time.

Upon hearing a question directing at her, the green haired older woman halted her daily stretch exercise abruptly and sharply turned around, her dark blue eyes glinted dangerously. Lin Shihoin was not amused.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Lin said calmly, betraying a fact that she emphasized each single word in her speech with the extra forcefulness.

"Who's your dad?" Kushina repeated a question frankly, didn't really saw the danger of asking that question. Minato wasn't sure which one she had a steel gut or sincerely ignorant of the unspoken rule.

Minato decided that it was probably a both of the two things since she was a foreigner and brash girl by her nature.

"It's a none of your business!" Lin growled menacingly, her tone almost sounded defensive and her scowl deepened. The faded pink two scars that parallel to each other in the same direction on her right side of her lower jaw, enhanced the menacing look on her face.

"But, I want to know! I did ask anyone about your dad, but nobody wanted to answer me! It drove me crazy! So I thought like, why not ask you directly?" Kushina answered, completely immune to the older woman's withering glare.

Then, a redhead girl uttered the next words that made Minato was seriously contemplating his death. "I will not take no from you. I will not stop until I get what I want, dattebane!"

_Yep, They would die a slow, painful death._ Minato thought morbidly.

Lin's glare intensified, so intense that Minato thought she might burn Kushina into a crisp with her glare just alone.

A stubborn redhead stared defiantly back at the older scarred woman who equally returned the stare. The extremely tense atmosphere hanged over the two females. Minato dared not to breath in fear that he might set off the proverbial bomb between them with just a single breath.

"Fine." Lin gritted her teeth, familiar with the infamous Uzumaki stubbornness when she saw that trait on the redhead girl. She knew that this girl was very persistent and would likely annoy the hell out of her by constantly bombing her with the questions and shadowing her everywhere no matter she tried to shake her off.

No wonder that she flatly refused out to the thought of bearing the children, or to be married to the man! Huh, it appeared that her curt reply shocked the two children into the silence.

Mmm, maybe she could give her what she wants, so this annoying brat would leave her alone in peace for a long, long time.

A relieved exhalation escaped from his mouth and his body slumped in relief; Minato didn't realized that he almost went blue when he literally held his breath that long.

"I didn't know who was my father. I think that mom mentioned his name or something when I was a kid. Don't remember that name. Now, you got it from me, happy?" Lin said flatly, completely straight-faced as she finally told the opened mouth children.

The two children stared at her in shock. Kushina blinked owlishly, then her violet eyes widened in amazement. So did his blue eyes. Holy almighty ink! Kushina actually managed to get an honest-to-god answer straight out of the infamous Blind Earthbender's daughter's mouth.

Starstruck, Minato stared at Kushina like she somehow pulled out a miracle out of her ridiculously long red hair. Then, Kushina screamed in joy and excitement.

"I did it! I did it!" She sounded like that she was hitting the jackpot! It felt awesome to obtain the secret and finally complete her personal quest after all such the hard works she had been done for days. She grabbed his hands in joy which unknowingly caused Minato blushing slightly, and began to twirl him around for a couple times.

_ So P-pretty... _He thought as his blue eyes met her sparkling, happy violet eyes. She finally stopped to twirl him around, and released his hand but her another hand remained grasping his other hand.

"We have to tell everybody about this!" She said excitably, tugged his hand in her hand. She started to drag the blissful boy along her toward the destined path.

Kushina and Minato yelped in surprise as the slightly curved wall of the earth suddenly blocked their vision and their path. They froze at the sight of the curved earthly barrier. It's no way for them able to climb over the rather smooth wall nor able to escape because the older woman was blocking their escape routes.

Feeling the dread feeling forming in their stomach, they slowly turned around to face Lin, who crossed her arms on her chest and scowled darkly. She looked like an authoritative, imposing figure reeking of her powerful aura.

"Tsk, How dare you brats think to leave without my permission? I'm not done with you yet._ Do not move until I say so_... You gaki with red hair!" Lin barked sharply like she issued the order on her underlings and her hand pointed at Kushina. The two children jumped in fright and their back unconsciously straightened out in response to her authority voice. They found themselves that they assumed the soldier position in which their arms kept flat down against their sides, and their legs closed together.

"Y-yes?" Kushina couldn't believe that she actually stuttered in a front of her. She now started to understand why the people were afraid of Lin. Lin was really scary when she was barking the orders like that.

"Don't dare to ask me that question ever again. Or tell anyone about what you hear from me...if I got a whiff of a rumor about that, I will know that it's your babbling mouth. I heard that both of you want to became Hokage. Yes? Then, I'll make sure that you'll never get a promotion to the Hokage position. No one will accept the Hokage with the criminal record. Got it, Gaki? And, same to you, Blondie, too." Lin said with the flare of her chakra empathizing her threatening tone.

Kushina and Minato gulped nervously and recalled a fact that Lin was the Chief Head of the Ninja Police Force and could easily slap the juvenile criminal record on them if she wanted to, then murmured, "Yes, Ma'am!"

"Come again?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" A little louder, but it was not enough for the older woman.

"Say LOUDER! I can't hear what you say!"

"YES, WE HEAR YOU LOUD, AND CRYSTAL CLEAR, MA'AM!" Kushina and Minato chorused loudly, caused the few birds that were near them flies away in the fright.

"Good." A satisfied, curt reply and she made a rather ominous 'I'm watching you.' gesture with her right hand composed of the two middle fingers and her thumb on her palm, her first finger and pinky finger pointed outward, moved it slowly from her eyes toward the two kids. That gesture made them gulping nervously, it earned them her pleased smirk indicting that she was obviously pleased that her threatening gesture got through their thick head.

The older woman lowered the wall of the earth and returned it back to the ground where it came from. Took a sign that Lin let them go, the two children hastily left in a hurry, trying to distancing themselves from this scary woman.

Now, Lin was alone by herself as soon as her sensory radar notified her that the two chakra signatures were gone. The tenseness left her body, her hand massaged her forehead as if she was trying to make her growing headache go away, she slumped a little bit with a tired sigh.

Goddess, she hated that question with the passion of the thousand suns. Truthfully, she actually lied to the kids. One, she did know who was her father or his name. Two, Her mother was not one to tell her his name. She actually found out whose man was her father all by herself. Three... well, she did feel bad for lying these kids. She wanted to keep that secret stay hidden for a good reason.

_Sorry, kids. But I preferred to take this secret to my grave._ Lin thought.

A question that this red-haired brat asked her, caught her guard off and stirred the unwanted memories of the insecurity and inferiority complexity from her youth days.

The faint memories of that man who fathered her, flashed over her mind and quickly faded away like the smoke blew away by the wind. Lin shook her head, as if she was trying to shake off the effect of remembering something that left a bitter taste on her mouth.

She'd preferred to leave these unwanted memories buried in the dark where it would never ever see the light again. And stayed there where it should belong to the past.

* * *

**A/N:** Whoa, we have another peak at the super far future where the little Kushina and Minato are alive! Did you enjoy Kushina's quest to find who Lin's father is?

Huh, it seems that Lin has a daddy issue. Once again, we have a same question that back to Chapter 29 with Masumi, now it directed to Lin's other parentage, WHO fathered the Blind Earthbender, Ishiko's child? *evil laugh* This authoress do likes to make the readers guess which men are Masumi and Ishiko with!

Yes, Lin Shihoin was inspired and based on Lin Beifong from the Legend of Korra. She was a totally badass woman. Ishiko are based on Toph Beifong, then why not her child based on Lin Beifong, too. And have you catch the familiar references in this chapter that borrowed from the Legend of Korra? Like...the cabbage man?

Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter! Please review this chapter kindly. Your reviews are feeding this author's inspiration to write more!


	32. Pandemonium

**Summary**: Michiko called for the public clan assembly.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

The Shihoin Clan was abuzz with the curiosity as the attendees entered the largest auditorium building. Their leader called for the public clan assembly. That's not happening very often in their lifetimes. The majority of the time, their Clan Head exercised the near-absolute power over the clan, though her power kept in check by their clan directives. On the rare occasions, the Clan Head granted the populace that kind of the power over their clan's fate.

In the Shihoin Clan's whole history since its founding, there were only six recorded events that required the public clan assembly to determine their clan's future. The last time they had that kind of assembly, it was 300 years ago and resulted the approval to wipe off the enemy clan from this living land as well as blotted out their enemy's clan name from the history. It also led to the modification of the already existing birth control seal for both females and males of the Shihoin Clan in order to prevent that type of these incidents ever again.

It was a retribution for abducted and drugged the male Shihoin, whose he didn't have a birth control seal on him at that time, with the extremely potent aphrodisiac herb to impregnate many of the females both slaves and unwilling selected members of the enemy clan as much as possible, all for a sake of their goal to steal the Shihoin bloodline. Found out that enemy clan's wicked intention sparked off the most spectacular explosion ever in a form of the feminine fury from the Shihoin Clan.

The enemy clan found out how the Shihoin Clan being a living embodiment of '_Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned_' really was. Needless to say, the enemy clan was totally obliterated down to the last man. Their main home burned down. Their trove of the priceless heirlooms and knowledge seized and claimed by the Shihoin Clan as the spoils of the war. The few survivors managed to escape from the massive attack from the Shihoin Clan.

But, unfortunately for the survivors, the Shihoin kunoichis relentlessly hunted them with their bloodline limit, just like the bloodhound caught the scent and never gave up on chasing the scent until it finally caught the owner of the secret. They stalked them non-stop for the three days and three nights until the extremely tired survivors caught and killed quickly by them. Except these unwilling female participators.

These women, whom forced to carry the Shihoin father's children, allowed to live and assimilate into the Shihoin Clan in exchange, they would never used or mentioned their family name within the Shihoin people's presence ever again.

Yes, these actions that their ancestors committed was considered horrific by the current generation thanks to the Shihoin Clan's tendency to record the reasons behind this incident and what events led to that massacre incident in their clan archive for the future reference, but at a same time they understood the reason why their ancestors took the drastic action to ensure the prevention of the bloodline theft.

That very action earned the Shihoin Clan the fearsome reputation enough into make their enemies to thinking twice before they dared to steal their bloodline. Anyone else not of the Shihoin Clan at that time were aware of that incident, but they died a long time ago.

So, naturally, the true story behind their reputation was bit distorted over three centuries, but the fear and respect toward the infamous Clan of Women Warriors still remained same to this day.

And now, this was a seventh public clan assembly happening right now in their lifetime. It was like there was once in a blue moon.

Hence why the auditorium building was packed with the many clan members who were curious to see why or what the reasons causing their leader invoke the public clan assembly.

The clan-members, women and men of the various ages alike quickly filled the hundreds series of semi-circular seats in the rows. Each row was slightly step higher than the lower row, ensured the viewers able to see without having others' heads obstructing their sight. The curious attendees chattered with each other as they waited for something interesting happening.

Below their rows of the semi circular seats, there was a round stage on the ground floor. In a front of the audience, there was the several large semi circular rows of the seats that decorated with the slightly fancy designs of the maple leaves. These rows of the slightly fancy seats was divided in half by the blue carpet covered stairway.

_Ding! Ding! Ding! _The sharp, high-pitched clanging sounds pierced throughout the noisy arena like the hot knife through butter. It was effectively reaching from a first row all ways to the last row. They promptly recognized these hails as the sign implied that the important event began soon. Some people whose were not yet found their seats, quickly claimed the available seats before the fourth metallic sound stroked.

Then, the tone of the clanging sound shifted from the high pitched to the low, rumbling bass as the fourth ringing sound tolled.

The clattering promptly quieted down as they heard the low bass ringing sound. The public stood up in the sign of paying the respect toward the higher ranked people. The clan elders and several distinguished people came out of the hidden doors in both sides. Their heiress, Masumi was a last one to follow her older clan-members to their seats. The important people wore their official, formal kimonos in the variety of the blue and green shades. Masumi was only one among the important people to wear the deep dark blue kimono with the silver maple leaves. They placed themselves into their assigned seats according to their seniority and ranks.

They, however, weren't sitting down yet, instead waited for a most important person. Their heads tilted upward around slightly toward the empty throne that was the only one seat sitting high above all their seats. It was on the highest end of the blue-covered stairway.

The clan leader's thone was only one that was far more decorative and fancier compared to the below seats. It was made of the finest and hardiest wood painted with the golden color, heavy with the maple leaves and the folk designs of the owls craved on the wood parts. The seat cushion covered with a dark rich blue color. There's a crescent moon supported by the two owls with the open wings on right in the middle of the top of the throne.

A large dark blue banner flag with the golden Shihion Clan emblem was behind and hanged over the empty throne.

Michiko walked out of the door that hid behind the throne. She wore her formal kimono in the deep, rich shade of dark blue and golden maple leaves. She looked like a dignified queen descending from her royal place to meet the common people. She sidestepped around her throne, and oriented herself in a front of her seat. She looked at the audience.

"Greeting, my people! I am certain that all of you wonder about your Clan Head invoking the public clan assembly. A reason was, my heiress requested me to assemble the Shihoin Clan. She expressed her desire to propose publicly in this assembly. As the Clan Head, I granted her a permit to do so. I, Michiko Shihoin, the 74th Clan Head of the Shihoin Clan declare the seventh public assembly begin!"

The startled audience was murmuring softly among themselves. Their heiress wanted to propose something in a front of the audience, here in the public clan assembly? It was unheard of the clan heiress to do that in this important kind of the assembly. In all of the previous recorded six public clan assembly, it was always the Clan Head to propose the proposition involving the clan's future. That ability to propose in the public clan assembly reserved for the Clan Head, not the heiress.

How unusual! They weren't sure why Michiko-sama allowed her heiress to do that in this assembly. But again, they owed their lives to their Clan Heiress. Had it not been for her, they surely would be dying of the plague that swept over the Land of Water and its surrounding islands several years ago. The deadly plague had been claiming the lives of the one in four populations in the Shihoin Clan. It was not easy for them, especially the Clan Head lost her closest and loyal friend, Akira to the deadly plague.

If that deadly plague claimed a little bit more, the Shihoin Clan might not able to recover from the irreversible, massive purge in their ranks. They shuddered at imagining that consequence if Masumi-hime decided not to become the healer and found a cure.

Therefore, they were willing to hear from their savior in this public clan assembly at least. In that way, they were able to pay the life debt to her.

Once they quieted down, Michiko again spoke, "I shall appoint Shihoin Kaede as the spokeswoman for this seventh public clan assembly."

The bulky elderly woman whose name called upon by her leader was standing up from her seat, shifted her body to face her clan leader and tilted her head to acknowledge her decision. "Yes, Michiko-sama. I accept."

Michiko nodded at her choice being accepted by Kaede. She sat down on her seat gracefully.

There was a murmur of approval from the audience as they mimicked their leader to sit afterward. They clearly approved Michiko's choosing for a spokeswoman position. Kaede moved toward the spokeswoman's position which was located at the lower end of the stairway and on the same level as the ground floor. Once she assumed her position on her newly assigned seat, then cleared her throat in a preparation.

"Come forth, please state your full name, rank and intention." The elderly woman called out in the loud, clear voice.

Masumi exhaled shakily, raised up from her seat that was on the right side of her mother's whereabouts. Her seat position was the closest to her mother's seat, and step lower than her throne. It signified her rank as being her heiress apparent.

She stepped on the stairway which was next to her seat, then proceeded to descend toward the ground floor.

Her heartbeat sped up slightly as she felt the hundreds pairs of the eyes stared down at her intensely. The majority of the eyes were mostly curious, but some were scrutinizing her almost if they were searching for the tiny crack in her proverbial armors. All of their eyes felt like the heavy burden pinning down on her. Every time she made another step forward, the feeling of the pressure on her escalated greater than before. Suddenly, her inner person faltered slightly as she realized that she was about uttering the words that had a power to decide her clan's fate for better or worse.

What if she was going to lead her clan into the extinction that the fate already decreed and carved in stone? Or..what if worsen, would she make the future much worse than before? She forcibly turned her mind away from the pessimistic thoughts. It did no good to her if she kept thinking in that way. Still, it was just fueling her hidden doubts to gnaw at her painfully.

She finally reached her destination which happened to be the center of the round stage. That ensured all of the audience able to see her from all of the angles.

Turning around to face the audience made up of the highest ranked people in her clan, Masumi then looked upward.

Her blue-green eyes met the azure eyes. Almost as if she knew her daughter's silent anxiety, her mother silently expressed the encouragement through her eyes. She even sensed Ichiko's chakra signature somewhere nearby along the few familiar chakra signatures. Somehow their silent assurance managed to banish her anxiety with just their presence alone. Felt her confidence boosting by her silent supporters' presence, she lowered her eyes away from her mother and took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

Masumi shifted her stance into the appearance of the confident young lady to show all see that she deserved to be the heiress of the clan comprising the majority of the strong kunoichis. She carefully maintained the full eye contracts with all of the important people in front of her.

The people in front of her were composed of the clan elders and clan councilors. The Clan Elders were the elders who are the wisest, shrewdest and experienced old women and men with their well-accomplished ninja career records. They became eligible to become the clan elders when they reached their 50th anniversary of their profession as the ninjas serving to the Shihoin Clan. The current numbers of the clan elders limited about at least hundred. Not all of her clan members could serve the Shihoin Clan as the ninjas over 50 years; the majority of the clan members often retired early from their ninja profession for the numbers of the various reasons before they reached their 50th mark.

In other hands, The Clan Councillors were the group of the seven clan members who chose by the clan members. Unlike the clan elder position, the clan members could be selected by the clan members regardless their age. The group must be comprised of the male elder, the male young adult, the female elder, the female young adult, the one has a knowledge of the external affairs chosen by a clan leader, the one represented the civilians and the most experienced healer. They held that position and replaced by their new successors once every decade exempt the two people who held their positions that personally selected by the clan leader, and being the most experienced healer.

Despite the difference of their positions, they shared a common duty; advising and suggesting their clan and their leader with their experiences and knowledge. They, however, was strictly not allowing to control their clan leader by any physical means. The Shihoin Clan Leader could accept or veto their suggestion on her own decision. Their directive laws ensured that way, so in order to keep the leader in power firmly.

However, in this rare case of the public clan assembly in where the political power of the Clan Elders and Clan Councillors became greater than the Clan Head. They were capable to sway the public if they combined their powers together. So, Masumi had to sway the public's hearts as well as at least the two-third of the elders and councilors by taking a leaf out of her blonde friend's pages. If Naruto could befriend the enemies with a power of his heart-moving speech, then she damn could do it with Naruto's method of the persuasion. With the addition of her own twist, of course.

_Naruto, Your method better helps me convince them! Or else I'll haunt you from my grave! Shannaro! _Masumi mentally told her not yet existing friend, remembering well his irrational fear of the ghosts. She exhaled slowly to calm her nerves. She felt ready to take on the most important obstacle that was about change the fate of her clan as well as the world.

"Greeting, Honorable Elders and Councillors as well as our sisters and brothers of my blood... I'm grateful and humbled by your willing to listen to this young woman. I, Shihoin Masumi, an heiress apparent and only child of Shihoin Michiko, the current Clan Head of our illustrious Shihoin Clan descended from the primary line of Shihoin Toyotama, the First Daughter of Shihoin Otohime, our First Matriarch and Founder of our Shihoin Clan wish to offer the proposal that it could affect us and our clan, old and young even ones whose not yet born in our clan." She recited the formal phrases from her memory. Her voice was strong, and full of confidence.

"Yes, you may. Our ears are open to you. What is your proposal? " Kaede asked with a faint tone of interest. Like the audience and her fellow peers, she was curious on what their Clan Heiress wanted to propose about.

_That's it._ Masumi thought as she heard the elderly spokeswoman granting her a permission to offer the proposal that she discussed, planned and revised thoroughly with her mother and other few trusted ones in secret for many months. She silently steeled herself for facing the potential backlashes from her proposal as she took a deep breath.

"My proposal is, I want to find our clan a new place to be our new home."

For a moment, there was no sounds escaping from the listeners except the silence filled with shock as soon as these fateful words uttered forth from their Clan Heiress's lip. Then the pandemonium erupted.

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**A/N:** Ohh, what a interesting history bits about the Shihoin Clan, though it was quite bloody. Well, they lived in the warring period. The genocide and revenge were pretty common in that era. So, yeah the Shihoin Clan could be very vicious if someone pushed their buttons in a right way. Mmm, what is their reactions to Masumi's proposal? I wonder... I suppose that we're going to find out in the one of future drabbles! *wink*

Besides, I would like address a few things about this story. Few of you the readers felt that this story is too chaotic. Did you read 'non-chronological drabbles' that I put on a summary? It meant this story was the series of the drabbles that did not follow the timeline in order. If this story is not your cup of tea. Well, fine. So don't read this story, if you don't like a way I write this story.

I'm actually disappointing that most of you the readers did not notice something important in previous chapter, in which the consequences of Masumi's decision and the Shihoin Clan's prescence affect the future where young Kushina and Minato are alive. I tended to leave the easter eggs behind in most of the seemly chaotic chapters. So, better watch out the seemly subtle easter eggs in the upcoming chapters.

Anyway, to my readers who actually like this story, I thank you for reviewing, favoriting or following this story. I hope that you like this 'political/clan' assembly scene. Please review this chapter kindly, your reviews were a source of the authoress's motivation to write more!


	33. Boulder

**Summary:** Ishiko's blindness became her vital asset when she faced her opponent in a first spar between the Shihoin and Uchiha.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The blank, milky blue eyes was clashing against the bloody red eyes.

"Ah, Is that your sharingin? How boring..." Ishiko just raised her right eyebrow as she felt his chakra concentrating heavily on the two places in which she assumed his eyes. She could feel his chakra got slightly tainted with something darker when he activated his sharingan. Ishiko noted that he was not yet overcome by that darkness which originated from his eyes.

Not mentioning that his eyes felt unnatural to her, almost as if he had the foreign eyes transplanted into his eye sockets in the past. She concluded that his unnatural eyes probably belonged to his late younger brother.

According to the Shihoin Clan's extensive spying network as well as the extremely detailed and centuries observations on the Uchiha Clan and its bloodline limit from the books from the Library of the Benzation, his original eyes were distorted due to the overuse of the sharingan and later restored back to the prime state after his younger brother's death.

The Shihoin scout, whose her frequent experiences with the Uchiha's unique chakra, sent to check out that information, observed closely her target's chakra system with her sensory bloodline limit in the extremely long range and later returned home to validate the information. According to the Shihoin scout's report, his restored sight was a result of the eye transplant.

His chakra spiked slightly with the irritation in a response to her bored tone. Apparently, she managed to infuriate her sparring opponent. Well, it's her talent to get under her enemies' skin. And she definitely did not feel shame when she exploited her talent to the fullest. After all, she was not afraid to pull the dirty tricks out of her sleeve, especially her sparring opponent happened to be the strongest Uchiha.

She felt his distinctive chakra from his sharingan attempting to enter and connect into her tenketsu points that located in her eyes, in which it were connected to her brain via the Chakra Pathway System. Unfortunately for him, her blindness and the non-functioning tenketsu points in her eyes ensured that it prevented that connection from happening successfully.

Who knew that her blindness was so useful against the Uchiha especially they never encountered and fought a highly trained blind kunoichi like her? This was a one of the moments that Ishiko truly appreciated her blindness. Her mouth curled upward into a shark-like predatory grin with the smugness.

"Too bad for you, your sharingin don't work on me."

She seized the moment promptly as soon as she felt his chakra flickered in a startled surprise that resulted a tiny relapse in his concentration which was enough for her. Her bared right foot channeled a large, short burst of her chakra to the soil. The earth groaned and cracked loudly under her sheer will. The largest chunk of the ground, tore away upward from the earth. Her fist was thrusting forward in a blur, the hovering rock rocketed forward explosively toward him. So fast that the earthly missile literally became blurry to the human eyes.

Madara swore loudly as Ishiko just pitched a massive boulder the size of the two story tall house right into his face.

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**A/N:** Whoo, it looked like that Ishiko may have a slight advantage over Madara thanks her blindness renders her immune to the Sharingan's hypnotic ability as well as the Sharungan genjustus that required the eyes contract and the victim's _working_ eyes.

But, it doesn't means that Madara is disadvantaged, he still have the plenty of the other tricks in his sleeve. After all, he is the strongest Uchiha and capable on par with Hashirama. Will the Blind Earthbender able to draw a blood from the Strongest Uchiha? Let's find out more the outcome of the spar between them in the one of the upcoming chapters! *wink*

Anyway, I hope that you like this rather short chapter. Please review kindly this chapter. Your reviews motivate this authoress write more.


	34. Giggles

**Summary:** Masumi took a first look at the soon to be home.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Masumi along her four clan-members followed the three men through the impressive wooden wall. She felt the wave of the sadness and nostalgia passing over her as soon as she saw the familiar buildings that Sakura once remembered a long time ago in her youth and before Pein's invasion.

Mai's chakra flickered subtly with a little concern tone, _"Michiko-hime, are you alright?"_

They used the special and unique Morse codes to communicate in a form of the subtle flickers, the tiny changes in the chakra frequency and minute movements of their chakra. Their empathy ability allowed them to feel their emotions attaching to their version of the Morse code to support the silent communication further. It was too subtle for anyone even the non-Shihoin sensors to notice their silent communication.

That's a reason why the Shihoin kunoichis were so successful in coordinate their teamwork and effective in the communication area even more so under the enemy territory where the risk of being heard by the enemy was high.

_"I'm fine, just this village reminds me of home. I just miss home." _Masumi returned wistfully, with her chakra responding in a same manner. Mai's chakra waved gently in the understanding manner. Only Mai and her best friend understood the hidden meaning behind her words.

Oblivious to the hidden meaning in her Clan Heiress's statement, Sacha joined in the conversation, _"Yeah, it feels similar to our home. There are a lot of the ninjas concentrating on the same place along with the civilians. I was able to spot Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Sarutobi, Akimachi, Nara, Hatake and Kurama. Oh wait, I even saw Aburame over there! That's a quite impressive that every major and minor clans in the Land of the Fire were sitting together in a same village." _ Sacha's chakra flickered in amazement at how the different dozen clans made their home in a same place.

Masumi inwardly smiled at Sacha's marvel at the novelty concept of that many different clans that once fought each other, now lived together peacefully under a same roof. She already used to this concept as she once lived in her beloved home as Sakura. Now, Masumi was there to witness the birth of Konoha. It was pretty amazing for her to witness this budding village prospering. Someday in the future, she knew that it would grow into the powerful and almighty ninja village surviving the three ninja wars and twice invasions.

Masumi hoped that her clan would find a good future and home in this village, in a return, Konoha would equally benefit from what her clan could offer their services to.

Yosumi added with a hint of the worrying tone in her chakra,_"It had to be at least a few thousands people in this village! I believed that it will continue to grow more if the people continued to join or their future children born in this village. It would be best if we lived a little bit far enough away from the dense concentration of the population without feeling overwhelming by the massive amounts of the chakra signatures, at the same time, we are within a reach of this village. I think it's better if we have the Chakra Filter Seals installing in every nook and crannies of our new houses."  
_

_"I assure you that I already thought about that and have been reached a same conclusion as you to deal with this problem." _Masumi assured a worried clan member with her chakra radiating the warm reassurance which was putting her worries at ease._  
_

Then, they all felt the foreign chakra trying to scan and probe their outer chakra facades. It appeared that the owner of that probing chakra tried to be discreet. Too bad for him, it only served to amuse and entertain them to sense his confusing frustration over his findings.

_"Ooohh! Did you feel him trying to check us out? I'm so flattered that this handsome guy shows the interest in us. I heard that he had a zero interest in the women. For a while, I thought that he swings in that way. For once, I'm glad that I'm wrong. It's definitely a sad day when a handsome and finest man like him would be no longer available to the womankind, if I'm right." _Sacha said excitably, her inner chakra wiggled softly in the suggestive manner as well as the amusement.

Masumi mentally rolled her eyes at Sacha and her fondness of the handsome males.

_"Hehe! well, apparently all the things you need the Shihoin women like us to turn his head around. I think that he tries to compensate his manly pride as a sensor for being outsmarting by us earlier." _Ishiko said cheekily, her chakra was transmitting the amusement and cheekiness. _  
_

All of the kunoichis felt each other's amusement and the silent giggles expressing in their inner chakra.

Meanwhile, Tobirama eyed the five women who followed his older brother from the corner of his eyes with the suspicious interest. He was a bit wary of the guests because he was a bit ruffled over their seemly impossible ability to pop out of nowhere in that close right under his nose. Amending his wounded pride in being a best sensor in his clan and possibly in his newly village, he scanned the Shihion kunoichis discreetly.

A white haired man did not detect the erratic spikes in these women's chakra that suggesting the aggression and hostility. Out of all the things he got an impression from them was the calm and steady movement of their chakra in which it was perfectly normal. He inwardly frowned in confusion as his sensory ability showed no result.

Then for some unknown reason... Why did he have a bizarre feeling in his gut that the Shihoin kunoichis was laughing silently at him?

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**A/N:** What a fast update! This is a chapter following right after Chapter 22, _Conversations_. What did you think of this chapter? You like their Shihoin version of the Morse code? I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Please review this chapter kindly. Your reviews are feeding the authoress's bunny muse.


	35. Lotus

**Summary:** Even all the past years, she still not accustomed to see her body that was completely different from her original body.**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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_Splash!_

Masumi sighed blissfully as she splashed the last load of a clean water on her naked body, her body finally cleaned of the build-up of the human sweat and dirt worth the two weeks.

She just came back from the two week mission to the Giant's Nest Islands for finding and taking the considerable amount of the extremely valuable product from the most dangerous and largest one of the flesh-eating spider species; the Chakra Spider. It was notorious for its skin able to resisting the chakra techniques the attackers tried to attack with, and its extremely fast reflex enhanced with its own chakra. Yes, it could utilize its own chakra to augment its speed and strength in a twofold.

No, it was not the Chakra Spider's skin that make this creature being valuable to the ninjas; its skin was too poisonous for the human use.

What the many ninjas were really sought after a product that the Chakra Spider tended to produce.

A dry silk thread. It was from the Chakra Spider's sticky web threads. Usually the humidity slowly sucked out of the sticky web threads over a time until it is no longer sticky and wet to the touch. It then fell into the grounds. Its appearance resembled the white and straight human hair threads with a silky touch.

A Chakra Spider's silk thread was renowned for its extreme durability and, most importantly, its unique ability to conduct the chakra, same way as the expensive chakra-conducting metal did.

It usually used to make the high quality ninja wires, wearing-resistant ninja garments and much more. A single pound of that silk threads easily fetched the hefty price.

It was only a way to collect this valuable silk was sneaking behind the Chakra Spider without alerting it. It was very difficult for the people even the ninjas sneak around it, because the Chakra Spider apparently had a crude ability to sense the chakra and extremely territorial. Most of the ninjas usually had to kill it by applying the large amount of the physical force enough to kill the Chakra Spider. Back in her first life, the Chakra Spider went extinct due to the result of the brute force style hunting method and the over-hunting of this species whose the reproduction was slow and took the years to become mature enough to produce the finest silk threads.

Fortunately, the people from the Shihoin Clan taught how to mimic the animal's chakra frequency for the evasion, infiltration and spying purpose. The Chakra Spider could sense the chakra basically, but could not tell the difference between the human chakra and animal chakra. In other words, it could sense how much amount of the chakra in their chakra system the prey has.

All the living beings had their own chakra system in order to continue their existence. The size of the chakra system related to the size of the creature. It usually would attack or eat the large creature with the large chakra system. Humans happened to be in that category. The small creatures with the small chakra system would be ignored by it.

She camouflaged her chakra signature by compressed her chakra and mimicked the chakra frequency of the tiny ground animal such as a mouse in which the Chakra Spider usually ignored in a favor to eat the larger prey. She sneakily managed to collect the dry, silky threads that were falling from the sticky webs threads attached to the high branches hanged above her head. All while right under the Chakra Spider's nose.

The eleven year old girl dutifully completed a goal along with the surplus and promptly returned to the regular merchant client who was pleased with the amount what she bought with her. She then went back home with a surplus of the valuable silk threads and her scroll filled with the handsome amount of the golds. She was tired from a such long trip and had the human sweats and dirt worth a two weeks on her person.

In which it led her straight to a heaven in a form of a bath. Now, she just finished her bath and reached out the large towel. She proceeded to squeeze the excess water out of her shoulder length teal tinted green hair with a towel.

Meanwhile, she continued to dry herself until her eyes fell upon the body sized mirror. She stopped the drying process. The body sized mirror was directly positioning in a front of her and on the other side of a room. Owning a mirror in that size was a rarity for the people lived in this era. Only the extremely rich people could afford it. Her clan was definitely rich enough to own and make the dozen mirrors in that size.

Ignoring the wet drops that came from her still wet legs in which she hadn't dry yet and held her towel spreading over her back, she walked toward the mirror.

She found herself staring at the reflection of the partly wet and naked stranger's body that she inhibited for eleven years.

Even all the past years, it still felt disconcerting for her to see her new body completely different compared to her original body every time when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She no longer had a pink hair and jade green eyes like once when she was in her original body. Her second body didn't have the large forehead like her original body when she was young. She instead got the Shihoin's typical green hair with a teal tint and blue-green eyes.

Her face even had a different facial structure compared to her old face. Budding high cheekbones, long eyelashes, lovely looking lips and oval-shaped face. All these traits made her facial appearance looked like that it belonged to the sheltered royal princess.

Wasn't that every girl dreaming to be pretty as the princess in the fairy tales? Apparently, the karma decided to endow her with the nice forehead in order to make up for all the mean teasings on her big forehead she received from the bullies when Sakura was young.

She even could feel the striking difference between her original body and her current body. Her stamina and endurance was five times longer than her original body when she was at that age. Her chakra reserve was about five times larger, in about an equal to the chakra reserve of the advanced chuunin and twice denser. A time and speed of her recovery from the heavy, exhausting spars with Ishiko, and other fellow members were considered well above the average.

A power of the superhuman strength usually depended on the basic muscle power. Enhancing the muscles with the chakra and a perfect chakra control to release the energy upon the impact accurately like that, it would amplify the raw strength in the hundred folds.

Her current body's natural raw strength was ridiculously high enough to crack the human bones without any chakra enhancement. At her current age, She already could rupture a ground with just a pinky finger or even cause a minor earthquake with a single punch when she was using her superhuman strength. Her raw strength would increase exponentially over a time as her body continued to mature and thrive under the harsh physical training that she currently used from that time in her former lifetime when Sakura started out as Tsunade's student. That training once used for make Sakura's weak body more stronger. Though she was a bit cautious to not go overboard with her physical training in order to not stunting her still growing body.

At that rate, she would be outclass Tsunade and her previous incarnation in a term of the raw strength by a time when she reached the 16th age.

Her new body's ability to process its energy was very effective, way more than the civilian body, and obviously designed for the stamina-consuming physical combats. Her body along her relatives' bodies was what every kunoichi from both clan and non-clan background wish to have. Her medic aspect concluded that it was probably due to her good genes came from the countless generations of the strong kunoichis' blood flowing in her own vein as well as their careful selection of the sperm donors with the best qualities and strong ninja background.

Her blue-green eyes trailed down the contour of her body image and paused at her naked chest.

She hadn't hit the puberty yet. Yuck, it would mean that her puberty would start over all again for a second time. Hopefully, this time in her new body, she would get the decent sizable assets in contrast to her original body which her assets ware a bit smaller than average. That area was a bit sore spot for Sakura especially all her friends had their assets bigger than hers.

Though she didn't want her assets to end up same as Tsunade's assets, it would be horrible on her back, neck and shoulders. And a sure way to attract the unwanted perverts.

Her glance, then continued to trail down as she was finishing her assessment of her chest.

Flawless and seemly never-ending smooth skin with the occasional faint, thin scars that came either from the sparring accidents or her fights with the enemy. Just one minor bright red ache interrupted the even skin tone.

Wait a minute. Blink. Pause. Her eyes went upward to see a place where a red blotch was, she swore that it wasn't there before.

She blinked again owlishly, her blue-green eyes squirted in order to examine it closer. She then did a double take at the image of her reflection in the mirror as her mind finally registered what she saw.

"What the hell-?"

In a mirror, she could see that it was not a red ache what she thought so previously; It turned out to be a grape-sized tattoo-like seal resembled the red lotus on the naked skin just below her navel.

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**A/N: **Ah, a second update on a same day! I'm sure that you the readers are happy to receive the second update on same day. Duhhh! Masumi discovers the strange, suspicious and unknown seal tattoo popping out of nowhere on her skin! Worry not! The answer will be revealed in due time soon!

Please review this chapter kindly. Your reviews has a power to motivate the authoress to write more!


	36. Kisshouten's Gate

**Summary:** Masumi confronted her mother about the strange tattoo seal on her skin that popping out of nowhere.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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In the Ninja World, The Uzumaki Clan was famous for their extraordinary talent in the most obsolete ninja art: Fuinjustu.

Fuinjustu was the most complex and difficult one out all of the ninja art branches to learn. It required the advanced literacy level, calligraphy and steady hands. In general, most of the ninja clans had a very basic literacy, barely enough to read and write. Some had no literacy at all. As for learning the calligraphy and developing the steady hands, it had to take a time and patience to develop that necessary skills. The ninja clans unfortunately did not have a patience for that, and considered these skills as the last priority. Some even looked down these skills.

They instead spent their energies on honing their fighting skills, ensuring to survive and win the battles for their clans in their early childhoods.

These main reasons why the fuinjustu's potentials were so undervalued by the majority of the ninja clans. Yes, there were few people in their clans taking a dip in these obsolete art. Their knowledge of the sealing art was sketchy at best.

Only the Uzumaki Clan truly saw the bottomless potentials in the fuinjustu art. But, unbeknownst to all the ninja clans, including the Uzumaki Clan, the Shihoin Clan also shared a same view as the former. It didn't mean that both the clans shared the same styles in the sealing art though. Their sealing styles were completely different and on the opposite sides.

As you see, Fuinjustu had the endless possibilities to make their imagination to become a reality. After all, the human imagination was infinite as the sky. They developed their own styles in the sealing art. Of course, they could make the common, basic seals such as the explosion seal tag and storage scroll.

The Uzumaki clan used the seals as the main weapon offensively and defensively. They literally breathed the fuinjustu art as the duck took to water.

The Shihoin Clan developed the unique seals that suit their needs and bloodline limit. Unlike their Uzumaki counterpart, they did not broadcast to the world that they have a knowledge of the fuinjustu art. They instead preferred the covert and subtle seals that guarded the precious information in their mind. In a fact, they invented the special type of the fuinjustu; Defensive Yin Fuinjustu that designed to guard the information and prevented the user from spilling out the secret information in any forms of the communication including the non verbal ones intentionally or not, no matter even under the extreme torture.

In a case of the Shihoin turned a traitor, they placed a hidden trigger in a seal to erase the knowledge of the fabled library, any information associated with the Shihoin Clan and the fuinjustu skills unbeknownst to the majority of the clan members except the few selected trustworthy ones.

It even protected the user from the mind invasion. Or it laid the nasty mental traps specifically designed against the mind readers like Yamanaka.

The two latter were necessary to develop due to the creation of the Yamanaka Clan centuries ago.

They did everything in their power to keep the knowledge of the fabled library out of the world's hands. After all, the Shihoin Clan knew that in the Ninja World, Knowledge is Power. Frankly, they had no desire to have the proverbial bull's eye painting on their back. Borrowing the shadow wielding clan's favorite catchphrase, it was troublesome to keep watching over their back and constantly being paranoid every time when they stepped out of their safe haven. Hence the creation of the Defense Yin Fuinjustu.

Oh, The Shihoin ancestors did invent some of the most powerful seals in the world beside the Yin Fuinjustu, like the Extension Seal which causing the fabled library expanded indefinitely in the small space pocket. They even create the insanely powerful genjustu seal powered by the limitless nature chakra that rendering their ancestral home island invisible to the world as well as misdirecting the wanderers away from their home. Some of their fuinjustu creations can last indefinitely as long as their bloodline remained alive.

That very one of their creations happened to show up on the heiress's body. Of course, the Shihoin Clan's heiress didn't know that. She reacted what any person in her shoes saw the strange seal popping out of nowhere on her skin. Naturally, she freaked out because she thought that a strange red lotus-like seal tattoo was similar to the curse seal.

Only way to find out whatever the hell this seal done to her body; she proceeded to go to a source; Her mother.

The Clan Head hummed as she skimmed through her daily report from her clan's financial status. Her sensory radar briefly alerted her of the incoming chakra signature in a hall that connected to her clan office. She instantly recognized her daughter's unique chakra signature. Her chakra strongly reeked the agitation, confusion and worry.

"Come in!"

_Whoosh! _Masumi almost was sliding the door open with the force enough to make the door rattling. She went rapidly across the room toward her desk.

"Mother!"

"Yes, daughter?" Her right eyebrow was raised in a question at the pensive expression on her daughter's face. Masumi looked ruffled. Her hair was still slightly wet. She wore a fresh, tunic-like green kimono, a knee-length black legging and a pair of the plain sandals. She looked like that she recently took a bath and was putting on her clothing in a hurry. Michiko wondered what got her daughter into this mood. She looked at her daughter curiously.

"I got a weird seal show up on my skin below my navel. I don't know where it comes from!" Masumi answered her unspoken question.

Ah, It explained why her daughter looked pensive and her chakra was in the agitated state. Well, it looked like that she was going to introduce her to the one of the Shihoin Clan's main customs that ran for the countless generations. Even her daughter already experienced that phase, she still was going to uphold her duty to introduce her to the second part of the First Lunar Blood rite of passage. The First Lunar Blood rite of passage essentially was the coming of age for the girls in the Shihoin Clan. It had the four parts to complete the First Lunar Blood rite of passage.

Masumi unknowingly completed the first part when she discovered this red lotus-like seal and confronted the older, closest female relative such as her mother. To initiate the second part, Michiko simply explained the workings of this red lotus-like seal and introduced her the wonders of the womanhood. After that, a third part, which involved the month interval between a day when this seal appeared and a day when her first bleeding occurred, Masumi required to eat a couple of the edible raw lotus seeds everyday until her first bleeding occurring. Forgetting or skipping the day to eat the lotus seeds considered a bad luck. That part was just purely superstitious. But, the rest of the Shihoin clan held on that superstition anyway.

On a day her first bleeding occurring, the family and closest friends were invited to the small, private party to celebrate Masumi's newly womanhood. This party continued every night until her first monthly cycle completed. Technically, the rite of passage considered completed when the first monthly cycle was over. But, since Masumi was the Clan Heiress, it would require an extra day-a day after her monthly cycle completed, there would be the large, extravagant festival that everyone in the clan attends, to celebrate their Clan Heiress's debut into the womanhood.

Michiko was forward to witness her daughter completing her First Lunar Blood rite of passage.

"Oh? Is this seal happened to be a red lotus?" Michiko asked knowingly. Masumi looked at her in surprise.

"Yes! That's one. You know what this seal is?!"

"Ah. I think that you should not worry about that seal. It's normal." Michiko answered nonchalantly, acting like that everything was normal.

"Normal?! What did it suppose to mean?!" Masumi said indulgently.

"Well, It looks like that you are about entering your First Lunar Blood rite of passage for a second time."

"Second time?" Masumi repeated confusedly, bewildered by her mother's cryptic comment. She then remembered the meaning of a term, 'Lunar Blood'. In her clan, they had a special term for their monthly cycle. They named this process 'Lunar Blood' because the time of their cycle resembled the time of the moon phase.

"Wait... you mean the puberty?!" Masumi said in a startled surprise, "But my time of the month even haven't started yet! What does this seal got to do with my puberty?"

"Yes, it is. Apparently it's a sign that your womanhood will arrive soon. I believe your first Lunar Blood should start around next month. It will disappear when your first Lunar Blood is complete."

"I see... So this seal shows up because my body is ready? Or is there more? Is this seal permanent? And what's a name of this seal?" Masumi half-asked and half-demanded her mother with the questions.

Unperturbed by her daughter's inquisitiveness, she answered,"Yes, this seal originally designed to prevent us to became pregnant that resulted from a sexual assault and, later serve as a birth control when they are on their seduction mission. This seal later extended to the males in our clan as well, though their version of this seal was opposite in a way; prevent them from sire the females and their lotus appearance was more masculine than our version..."

"And...?"

"It also served to prevent the foreign kekkei genkai to intermix with our bloodline limit if the male that we chose to sire our child, happened to have another different kekkei genkai."

_So... This red lotus-like seal was a combination of a birth control and gene control then..._ Masumi thought as she processed the information.

"So, if without that seal, will a child would get both of the two different bloodline limits from the Shihoin mother and father with another bloodline limit?" Masumi asked.

"Yes, our kekkei genkai are... very flexible and could easily complement to any bloodline limit. It's also one of many reasons that our ancestors, create this seal and... even made our laws to forbid the intermixture of the two different kekkei genkai. We don't tolerate our bloodline limit mixing with others."

"Okay, but... what's about the political marriage with a clan with other kekkei genkai? What's happening to that child resulted from that union?"

Michiko quirked her eyebrow at the interesting questions that her daughter raised.

"Well, I'd said that you got some interesting questions. No, we don't do the arranged marriage with the other clans with or without the bloodline limits. Our ways of thinking are not going well along with each other. We considered to be...too free spirited by their standards concerning the women. Also, it might increase the risk that our library was being discovered by others." That latter tidbit got Masumi considering a possibility that she hadn't been thought before.

"Since you asked for the hypothetical situation, should it happened if that clan with a foreign bloodline limit, willing to overlook our tendency to produce the female offspring or our ways. Then we could modify this seal with the Clan Head's permission, if this child from that union is a girl, then she will receive our bloodline and family name only. If it's a boy, though it was a low possibility, then he will receive his father's bloodline and his paternal clan name. No mixture of the two different bloodlines at all. Just one bloodline in a child. Our bloodline in the daughters. The father's bloodline in the sons. It also applied to any descendants from that union. Any children, both female and male descended from the son will inherit their paternal bloodline. This seal will surpass our bloodline limit and any side-effects associated with our bloodline in the son's descendants. It's totally permanent and cannot be undone. Any children both and male descended from the daughter will inherit our bloodline. That way ensures no bloodline theft, our bloodline stays in our clan and remain pure." Michiko paused for a few minutes to take a few quick sips from her cup that contained the water.

Masumi thought that it sounded like that her clan shared the similar purist attitude with the Hyuuga Clan when it came to their bloodline. That way her mother explained how this lotus-like seal work; she was sure that every clan with their own bloodline limit would love to have this seal. It would be... ensuring no one able to sow their wild oats and that action later bit their clan's collective ass back in the future when the random outsider showed up with their bloodline limit.

Her mother then continued, "It's rare, but it happened before in the past. If I remember correctly, there was at least twenty incidents, recording in our clan archive. Out of all these cases, the five cases involving the ones from the different clans with the bloodline fell in love and left their clan as the traitors for the sake of marrying to the ones from our clan. The need to alter that seal never manifested because these ones adopted our family name as their surname. All the children, both girls and boys from that couples carried our kekkei genkai."

"Wow, I don't know that history part."

"Yes, it certainly sounds romantic and it's hard to find these types of people who accept and love us unconditionally. Anyway, right back to that subject, is this seal permanent? Yes. It's a Bloodline Seal. Actually, it was not permanent in the beginning."

"Bloodline Seal?" Masumi repeated the unfamiliar term that she never heard before.

"Bloodline Seal is a special permanent seal that it can pass from parent to a child though a bloodline without need the seal master applying a seal on a baby right after a birth. It will show up on the skin and activate when a child enter the puberty. As for the son's descendants, it will not show up on their skin and hidden from their sight. That ensured to stop anyone investigated how this seal worked. "

"So, I inherit this seal from you though a bloodline, then?"

"Yes, I inherit this seal from my mother who receive it from her mother, so go on all ways back to our ancestors. All people in our clan, both ninjas and civilians alike receive this seal. Same applies to your future descendants as well."

"I see, earlier you said that this seal wasn't originally permanent, is it means that this seal started out as a temporary seal, not as a Bloodline Seal?"

"Well, in the early days of our clan, probably around a few decades after our library relocated to our current home, an original creator, I recall correctly, she was a clan head and a seal mistress at that time, foresaw the high possibility of the overpopulation on the small island due to our potent fertility and ability to bear the multiple births. To control the population, a creator invented that seal to prevent the multiple births. Consequently, we limited themselves to give a birth to a one child at a one time."

"What about that triplet sisters?" Masumi was referring to the Shihoin Clan's infamous Terror Triplet Sisters.

"Ah, they...well, let's say their situation was an exception to a rule." Michiko chuckled as she saw her daughter made a baffling expression.

"Anyway, at the first, it was necessary to control the population on such a small island. However, this seal evolved over a time at the same time, the existence of the kekkai genkai manifested in many people and the people from the paternal clans tracing out their illegitimate children's mothers' background. It would lead to the unwanted discovery of our library. So, our ancestors add that aspect to stop the intermixture of the kekkai genkai. It later served as a birth control for our ninjas on their seduction mission as well as keep our bloodline pure. That seal was so valuable, our seal masters converted this seal into a permanent tattoo on a skin to save a time to spend the unnecessary time to lay that seal. That permanent tattoo aspect originally reserved for the females in our clan. Through its inner working remained same; it simply required a person to manually activate a seal in a physical way. The males in our clan at that time, unfortunately did not have that privilege. The seal masters still applied that temporary seal on the males in an old fashioned way when they were on the mission. Till the three hundred years ago... the kidnapping of a young man from our clan happened. He, at that time, did not wear his birth control seal because it was temporary and easily removed by any person who had a plenty of skill in fuinjustu. It showed to my previous predecessor and the seal masters at that time, there are a major flaw in a temporary seal, even a permanent tattoo seal; it won't work if a person was knocked out and unable to activate the seal manually and physically if their chakra was being suppressed and their hands bound. Not mentioning that this old version was visible all the time, too. This current seal was a result of our ancestors' effort to eliminate the flaws and adding the better modifications into this seal." Michiko finally finished the history of the red lotus-like seal. Her hand reached a cup and she drank the water to sate the dryness in her throat after a such long explanation.

Masumi was quiet for a few minutes upon hearing her mother's explanation, her mind whirled at the new information.

Then she finally asked a question that bothered her awhile, "So why did I am not aware about this seal? I mean, you know how often I went to the library and the Fuinjustu section didn't mention that seal."

"Actually, this seal excluded from that section on purpose. We do have a book devoted on that seal, but, we placed this book in that special section somewhere." Michiko explained as she returned her cup back to her desk.

"Why?" Masumi asked curiously, although her strategic aspect noted 'that special section somewhere' suspiciously sounded like the special section contained the techniques or information that were either dangerous or too valuable. She supposed that this seal fell into that category since this bloodline seal sounded like that it required the insane level of the fuinjustu skills par on the Uzumaki seal master's level and extremely extensive knowledge of the human body to make this seal.

"It's meant to teach the young ones to not rely on the library too much. Sometimes it's better to ask a person who possess the specific knowledge that they look for. Also, It's supposed to be a part of our tradition to help to strengthen the bond between mother and daughter."

"..." Masumi stared at her blankly, then flushed in the embarrassment when she got the hidden meaning in her mother's latter statement, her cheeks stained pink. She didn't even realized that she unwittingly started 'The Talk' with her mother. It was really awkward to have that talk with a mother for a second time. She knew that puberty and sex were the parts of the natural process. It still was awkward for her, especially her previous incarnation grew up in the male-dominating society where the menstruation rarely brought into the conversations openly. But, for a some unexplainable reason, she got a weird feeling that her clan's attitude toward that area was... different.

"Oh by way, This seal is known as Yang Seal: Kisshouten's Gate." Michiko smiled in amusement at her daughter's strange but endearing prudish reaction to 'The Talk'.

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**A/N: **Whoo, sorry about a two weeks half wait for this chapter! This update finally arrive here, you all wait for! Well, Masumi (and us, too) got the answer (and got 'The Talk') from Michiko on this lotus seal that show up in a previous chapter. So what do you think of Yang Seal: Kisshouten's Gate (I hope that Michiko's explanation on how this seal work was clear.)**  
**

The women in this clan knew very well if a news went public about this clan possessing this fabled library. It would paint a giant bull-eye on the Shihoin Clan and every clans gunning for them to laying their greedy hands on that treasure. Hence why The Shihoin Clan took and made a saying "Knowledge is Power." into the clan motto literally and figuratively. And keep that information hidden as much as possible. Therefore their ancestor crafted the special branch, Defensive Yin Seals.

If you are curious why I use a lotus as a tattoo seal. I researched a lot on the lotus and how the Asian cultures viewed it. Lotus was considering the symbol of the fertility in India. In Buddhism, Red Lotus associated with the passion, love and other emotions of the heart. Red color, of course from the western view, associated the passion, and desire as well as the blood. Hence I used the red lotus as a tattoo seal.

I also used a lot of the symbolism in some of the previous chapters. For an example, if you noticed the Shihoin Clan heavily favored the blue and green color. Blue was associating with wisdom, truth, intelligence, and serenity. It also considered feminine color in China. Green associated with spring, harmony, fertility and new life. Same apply to the owls in which it strongly associated with Athena, the greek goddess of wisdom, knowledge and war strategy.

Whew, I hope that you don't mind a such long rumbling explanation from me about the symbolism stuffs. I'm a big fan of the symbolism. Anyway, please kindly review this chapter! I would love to know what the readers think of this chapter, their skills in fuinjustu and the First Lunar Blood rite of passage. (The Lotus Seed superstition was not real, I just made up.)

**Translation Note:** In Japan, Kisshouten was the goddess of fertility, fortune, luck, beauty, and merit in the Buddhist myth. The edible lotus seed was real, often can be eaten either raw or cooked and used as the ingredient in the Asian cuisine and desserts.


	37. Rhombus

**Summary:** Masumi found herself herself in a deep trouble when her battle with a crazy female cultist leader unexpectedly went south.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: slight swearing and violence

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Masumi panted lightly, her green-blue eyes shining with the steely glint. She could feel the burning sensation in her muscles due to her pouring out all of her energy into her evasion ability to dodge the extremely sharp two-bladed scythe.

In a front of her, there was a half naked, insanely laughing woman with a chest length blond hair tied in a twin ponytails, her left ponytail broke loose and her purple eyes filled with the madness and sadistic delight. She held her two-bladed scythe on her right hand.

"That's so amazing~! This Kali-chan never meet someone could evade my scythe so long and so fast like you. What a such delight finding~! This Kali-chan have to admit that you are a first one that this Kali-chan unable to lay her hand on your delicious blood." She giggled in a high pitch, totally obvious that her chest laid bare for all the world see. Her upper garment was shredding in pieces as a result of her chest took a full brunt of the high pressure water jet. Only the remaining lower part of her top garment and the obi remained intact. Yet, she still was alive.

No matter Masumi managed to lay her with her chakra-enhanced punches a few times. That crazy woman just bounced back on her feet quickly after getting blown away by her punches each time, her annoying maniacal grin still remained on her face. It baffled and annoyed the hell out of Masumi.

What the hell did this crazy woman made of? She must be having the insanely fast heal regeneration. Or it was something to do with her status being Jashinist.

Masumi gritted her teeth in displeasure. She had been evaded all the attempted slashes that her opponent attempted in order to draw out a blood from her. Her clothing ended up receiving the end of the sharp blades and now sporting the many cutting damages. She even got her hair cut a few centimeters on right side and ended up looking uneven slightly.

Unlike a Jashinist guy from the Atasuki whose her lazy friend from her previous lifetime told her about his encounters with a Jashinist, Kali seemly did not need to draw the curse seal on the ground in order to inflict the fatal injuries on her victims. Kali appeared that she was much more powerful than the Jashinist guy. All the things she need was simply taking a one lick on a victim's blood on her scythe blade that she nicked her victim with. She saw this Kali woman performed that to her unfortunate victim when she stumbled upon the scene of her sacrifice ritual.

Thanks goddess, Masumi managed not to get a single visible cut on her skin or else she might in a trouble if this crazy woman caught a drop of her blood.

"Jashin-sama, look at her! Did you think that she is worthy to be a sacrifice for you?" Kali asked to the air, her purple eyes glazed slightly. She looked like that she was in a trance and communicate mentally with something in which it made Masumi feel uneasy.

"Ooo, really?! Yes! Yes! Yes! This humble Kali-chan shall obey your command as you wish, Jashin-sama!" Kali shouted crazily in happiness, her freed hand flew toward her upper thigh that hidden by the lower part of the ruined tunic kimono. She pulled out an object, revealing to be a small ancient looking dagger. It had a sinister looking skull on a bottom of the dagger. The Jashin symbol was visible on both the sides of the blade.

The teenager heiress had a really ominous feeling about this.

Before Masumi do anything to stop her, Kali stabbed herself right on her heart.

Her red lips shifted into a maniacal grin, impossibly wider than before. "You should be feeling honor because Jashin-sama wants to meet and claim you. In person."

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Jashin's Avatar Activation!" Her eyes rolled back in ecstasy, her loud moaning sounds sounded like that she was experiencing the intense pleasure in a sexual way. Then, her chakra exploded outward from her body. The battlefield flooded with the malicious chakra, so full of darkness and death that sent Masumi's sensitive sensory sense went frenzy in alarm and recoiled back in disgust at the same time.

If anyone was in her place, a person would be likely faint under the sheer pressure of that wicked chakra. But Masumi was not like that, her previous incarnation had been fought and defeated the army of the small clone version of the ten tailed beast with her own hands. Hell, she even punched Kaguya in her face! Masumi remained firm and withstand against the pressure of that wicked chakra, although she forced to suppress her sensory bloodline partly in order not get a sensory overload causing by the sheer evilness emitted from that disgusting chakra.

Seeing her transforming into the physical manifestation of a crazy female cultist's god reminded her disturbingly of Madara being taken over by Kaguya. Back in the corner of her mind, a small part of her speculated that Jashin was actually once human who ascended into a godhood just like Kaguya. Perhaps, she should check out that information in the fabled library, only if she made through this and came out alive first.

She saw the mass of the dark chakra molded around her body and transformed it into the clearly male body. It revealed that a man was half naked and his chest and feet bared. The intrinsic, black tattoo compromising of the tiny, hundreds series of the scripts in an unknown ancient language was all over his exposed tan skin. From a far-viewing of the black tattoo on his exposed skin, his tattoo resembled the skeleton bones in a quite realistic way. He wore a plain black hakama that secured by the crimson strap in a front of his waist. His brown forehead hair folded backward. A thin tendril of the slight curly hair escaped from its cage and fell against his forehead. He would look very handsome, had it not been for his disturbingly realistic skull-like tattoo covering his facial skin. His stance was full of the swagging arrogance and unnatural charisma.

"How interesting... I would never imagine in all of my existence that my servant manages to stumble upon a transmigrated soul with the full memories awakened." A dark entity chuckled darkly, his voice sounded smooth like a velvet silk to her ears. She wasn't fooling by his hypnotic voice nor his charisma courtesy to her semi-suppressing sensory sense told her that his chakra was otherwise contrary to his appearance.

Masumi's eyes went wide in shock, then narrowed in anger. "How do you know that?!" Masumi growled.

Jashin purred, "How do I know that? I eat the souls that my dear servants, so kindly offer me in return, I shall grant the immortality as a reward. It's very rare to find a transmigrated soul. I ate that kind of the soul few times before. They tasted like, you humans called your alcoholic beverage, I believe that it's called wine..."

He raised his left arm slightly. A black, dense orb of his dark chakra in size of the appeared on his opened hand.

"I wonder though... what a kind of favor your soul taste like? I certainly heard that the well aged wine considered best by the humans." He ended his drawling speech with his hand suddenly clenched on a dark orb, just like he squeezed a fruit. The dark orb being squeezed by his hand, started to leak its crimson liquid-like chakra. It disgustedly reminded her of the human blood. The blood-like chakra shifted into a crimson long scythe with an extremely sharp-looking red blade.

Jashin smiled creepily at her, his smile promised the unspeakable evilness and his abyss black eyes sparkled sinisterly.

_Well, shit. _She cursed silently as she saw that way he eyed on her like she was a prey. His intention clearly indicated that he was going to toy with his prey. He would claim her soul after he was getting bored with her.

She had no one to back her up. Several hours earlier, she and her two teammates were splitting up in order to spread out their quick scanning of the Thousand Islands that made up of the archipelago of the approximate thousand fairly sizable islands. It was effective and quicker to search and located the missing villagers.

She didn't expect that she ran into the trouble in a form of the cult group who obviously kidnapped the villagers from their homes.

She knew that it was no hell way for them able to reach her on time. Even she sent her owl summon to them thirty minutes ago, it took them at least an hour to reach her from their location on their fastest speed. She doubted that her two teammates encountered someone like him before. They would be likely to end up killing by his curse technique. She was only one to be aware of the danger of his curse technique, thanks to her awaken memories from a past life._  
_

She was all alone. Alone, fighting against him all by herself. That's a moment when she knew that she really, really was in a deep trouble.

It looked like that she had no choice but must activate her improved version of the secret seal to unleash her full power against the entity who happened to be Jashin whose the bloodthirsty cult group claimed to worship and seemly intended to eat her soul. She hoped that the survivors whose she managed to freed from the cult group, escape from this island via the boats. She knew that she would fight for her life. And her soul. Literally.

Masumi quickly raised her hands, her hands formed a release seal.

Beneath her teal tinted green hair that obstruct the world from seeing her forehead, an indigo rhombus mark appeared and shimmered softly with her chakra.

"Yin Seal: Strength of Thousand Seal: Release!"

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**A/N:** I hope that you are happy with this quick update. Wow, Masumi forced to use her Yin Seal: Strength of Thousand Seal against Jashin, a dark god! Her Yin Seal: Strength of Thousand Seal was the improved version of the Yin Seal: Strength of Hundred Seal. What kind of the improvement she made on this Yin Seal: Strength of Hundred Seal? Well, I guess we'll find out in the upcoming chapters.

Well, there was very little knowledge on Jashin. I notice that the very powerful people in Naruto tends to have a "God" or "Goddess" attach to their monikers like Kaguya Otsutsuki, Rabbit Goddess or Hashirama Senju, God of Shinobi. Jashin is a god of the destruction and death in the Jashinism. I thought that it was a possibility that Jashin is once a human similar to Kaguya and likely to obtain the godhood/immortality through the unknown methods similar to what Voldemort did to achieve the immortality. As for a religion named after him, it's a high chance that Jashin was very, very charismatic man and good at brainwash or convert the people to became his fanatical followers. That's my theory about this character.

Anyway, please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews has a power to move my hands to type a next chapter!

Translation Note: Kali is a Hindu goddess of destruction. I chose that name befitting for this Naruto version of Bellatrix Black who serve Jashin, her god of destruction.


	38. New

**Summary:** Ishiko found her friend's first time summon hilarious. Masumi was not amused at all. Nor her owlet summon either.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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A hysterical laughter bubbled forth from a blind little girl. She bent over, her hands on her knees. She almost fell over, but held her standing. Meanwhile, Michiko whom supervised their first attempted summoning, looked amused as she watched the humorous scene happening in a front of her.

Masumi turned her head, glared at her laughing friend. It only made Ishiko laughing louder than before.

"Oh Kami! That's a riot! HA-ha-! Goddess! my stomach hurt!" Ishiko heaved, choking between the laughter and desperately gasped for the air at the same time. Her arms raised to clutch around her stomach.

Her tiny summon creaked open his left round eye, shooting an annoyed glare at the person who made a noisy ruckus that interrupted his nap. He huffed irritably. He really did not like someone interrupting his precious nap.

The irritating owlet hopped toward the laughing source in a short, quick stride. The nine years old heiress blinked in confusion a couple of times and looked at her new summon curiously. She could tell from her summon's avian face that Taidaime was greatly annoyed by her laughing friend. She got a vague impression that he disliked to have his nap interrupting. She didn't attempt to ask him about what did he was up to. Rather, she wanted to see how did her avian summon expressing his displeasure to Ishiko.

Ishiko blinked owlishly, her eyebrows furrowed quizzically as her sharp hearing picked up the hopping sounds that the owlet made. And it was on the ways toward her. Her laughter slightly slowed down.

"Eh, ha, What's he doin- OW! MY-" Ishiko exclaimed in pain as she felt something sharp sinking into her sensitive big toe. The owlet bit a bigger one of her toes on her right foot. Its beaks weren't sinking deep enough to draw out her blood, but it still hurt a lot. Reflexively, she jerked off her foot away from the avian menace. Her jerky movement caused an owlet released its beak quickly. It stumbled a bit and turn around, there was a few loose gray feathers straying in the air as it hastily wobbled toward Masumi before Ishiko recovered from a sudden pain.

To the owlet's pleasure, Masumi was swooping him quickly in her hands and shielded him from a full blunt of the blind nine years old girl's wrath. Ishiko growled seethingly as she bent forward to rub her throbbing big toe.

She sensed that avian menace in her best friend's arms. She knew that she strictly forbidden to beat up or injury her clan's owl summons. It would bar her from summoning her own owl summon. That owlet would inform the Owl Summon Clan about her if she dared to do that to him. And that damn owlet knew it!

_Ha! Serve her right!_ Taidaime thought vindictively, his feathery chest puffed with the smugness. It felt good to have the justice served.

Ishiko definitely sensed the smugness from him, from that way her milky blue, blank eyes looked directly at him as if she tried to burn him to a crisp with her glare. She would find a way to turn a table on that little smug ball of feathers without breaking that rule.

Completely ignoring the glowing blind girl's withering glare irreverently, Taidiame happily dozed off, his sleepiness causing by the pleasant feeling of having snuggled into his new mistress's warmth.

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**A/N:** Hello again, Here is this short chapter (a minor break from the action scenes) for you! This chapter was following right after a previous chapter 11, Owlet. (If you don't remember then, I suggest you look back and re-read chapter 11, It will help you connect between the two dots.) Heh, It seems that Masumi's first owlet summon have a quite mean bite when its nap interrupted. Hope that you like the intersection between Taidaime and Ishiko.

Please kindly review this chapter! Your reviews are feeding my motivation to write more upcoming chapters!


	39. Nightmares

**Summary: **Michiko calmed her infant daughter after a bout of the distress again.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The azure blue eyes snapped open, Michiko jolted awake instantly as soon as her sensitive sensory radar hit by a tsunami-like wave of the strong despair. It was so strong that it might wake up another person in the next room. Thankfully, the wooden crib had the Chakra Filtering Seal craving on it. It was designed for stopping the foreign chakra overcoming her infant's overly sensitive sixth sense. It also prevented others to sensing her daughter's chakra courtesy to her subtle tinkling in this seal to ensure that it locked on her sensor radar.

It was from the crib near her bed, within reach of her person. So, she could easily reach her daughter instantly whenever she needed to be fed or changed her diaper.

In a flash, she came over the crib. She promptly picked up her daughter. She sent a wave of her chakra to soothe her distressful infant. Soon, her daughter's chakra relaxed and no longer emitted the distress signal.

Judging how strong the distress her daughter's chakra expressing to her sensory radar earlier, it was likely involving a memory of her violent death, even she did not know how her past incarnation died. She was sympathetic to her situation. It must be difficult to feel trapped in your bad memories in a constant loop. It's hard to watch her baby suffering alone, and all she could do was staying with her and chasing away her suffering with her soothing chakra. It was a temporary solution and would not cure this condition. It's up to her daughter's mental strength to withstand these memories. But she knew that it might take a while for Masumi settled down and no longer tormented by her past incarnation's memories.

She sighed tiredly as she gently returned her sleeping daughter back in her crib. Once she made sure that everything's fine with her daughter, she walked back to her bed. She knew that it would darken a slightly black circles more that already presented under her eyes. It would give everyone an impression that their Clan Head looked like that she didn't have a good sleep for a while. Thanks goddess for the cosmetics! She could hide these black circles with the makeup. She wasn't that vain, but... just she didn't want her clan worry about her and bend over backward for her. Yes, she was that popular with the majority of her clan.

Michiko sighed again for a seemly countless times. It was a ninth time in a row that she was awake by her daughter's nightmares.

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**A/N: **Ah, hello! Sorry for a long waiting! I present another chapter to my readers though it was very short!

See? Michiko, despite being a serene lady, still was a first time mother. Took a care of a baby who had a teenager mind with a post-traumatic stress disorder was not easy as a walk in the park and very stressful. I hope this chapter added more depth of Michiko's character and how she deal with her daughter's unique condition.

Anyway, please kindly review this chapter! Your reviews boosted my motivation to write more!


	40. Context

**Summary:** An owl finally reached the targeted destination after a such long flight travel across over the ocean all ways to the continent.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The avian creature flipped his wings, the rushed wind passed and rolled under his wings. Below under him, a dense, green forest went blurry as he passed over it.

Taidaime remembered what happened in the few days earlier that he carried out his assigned mission.

_A few days ago..._

_Taidaime felt his gut tugging by the familiar pulling, recognized that his mistress summoned him. He was allowing himself disappearing with a pop sound from his home realm. _

_Pop! He appeared in a front of his mistress with a popping sound and a white smoke. He found himself in her mistress's office room and stand on her desk. _

_"Hello, Tai." A twenty-four years old woman greeted her avian friend. _

_"Greeting, Masumi-hime." He drawled, his head tilted in lazy curiosity. His half lidded eyes focused on his mistress, then flickered downward. He saw a formal scroll grasping in her hand. "Ah, a delivery mission, then?"_

_"Yes, I want you to deliver this scroll to a man called Senju Hashirama."_

_"Senju Hashirama? As in the Senju Hashirama of the Senju Clan?" Taidaime said with the rare display of the surprised expression on his avian face. That's... a rather unexpected one. After all, Senju Hashirama was a most famous ninja in the Ninja World. Even the news of Hashirama's fame reached the Summoning World. Everyone in the Summoning World heard this man's legendary prowess and knew his name. The Owl Summon Clan liked to hear something interesting though the grapevine from the various animal summon clans and kept up the news concerning the human world. Hashirama was the one of these 'interesting' subjects in the grapevine because he obtained the rare ability to access the senjustu and perfect sage mode in which the very few humans able to achieve at that level. Even more impressive that he was capable to subdue the tailed beasts with his unique Mokuton.  
_

_"That's right. Please turn around." _

_Taidaime hummed as he obediently turned around, his back in a front of her. There was a scroll container fastening on his back. He felt the weight pressing against his back. Her hand lightly patted his head affectionately as she told him about Hashirama's current whereabouts._

_His head bobbled in understanding as he listened to her mistress describing the appearance of his target when he once found his destination._

_"You know what to do when you get a reply from him." His mistress told him. She already left the window open for him to exit from her office room. _

_Taidaime leaped forward into the air, flipped his wings to get a lift. He made a short flying upward toward the window from her desk. He landed on the bottom border of the window, paused and turned his head around backward without moving his body in his mistress's direction._

_"Oh, by the way, you owe me a week off after this mission is over." He informed her. _

_"Sure, no problem. Please take care of yourself and have a safe flight!" _

_Taidaime blinked and hummed in acknowledgment, shifted his head back to its original position. He took off from the window, his brown wings spreading wide and the wind carried him away to his destination._

His mind returned to the present as his eyes blinked slowly and saw something odd stuck out from the forest within his sight range. Slowly, the odd shapes emerged out as the distinctive gate wall. He now could see the walled gate surrounding the village far way. It got bigger as he approached closer and closer to the village.

Passing over the gate, his sharp eyes scanned the village and looked for the tallest one of the structures, then finally spotted the largest and circular building with the fire symbol on it. He adjusted his wings and tail, his avian body effortlessly gliding downward in a spiral around the targeted building. He saw that the one of the windows was opened, that was surely an invitation for the avian messenger to land on. He made no sound as he fled toward the opened window.

With a controlling descent and careful landing, his claws moved forward to land on the solid surface. He hopped on the opened window, his face peeking through the window cautiously.

Taidaime saw a tall, long-haired man with a tan skin talking with the younger white-haired man. He also spotted another tall, spiky haired man leaning against the wall.

He hooted loud enough to draw their attention on him. The two men paused their conversation, and turned their head toward the window.

"What did the owl doing here?" The big man with the white hair said, eying a brown owl suspiciously. Inwardly annoyed by his suspicion, Taidaime stepped out of the window frame that blocked the humans from seeing the scroll on his back.

"Oh! You must have something for me, then?" A tanned man with the warm demeanor exclaimed in enlightenment. This must be Hashirama, there was no doubt about his powerful chakra and charisma. It fitted the physical description of this man that his mistress gave him.

Taidaime hooted affirmatively. He did not want to reveal a fact that he was a summoning creature. He instead played the simple but intelligent owl courier. He then made a quick brief flying to the empty chair. His feet latched on the wooden back support of the chair. His head bowed downward slightly. It allowed a tanned man fishing a scroll out of its container easily. An owl felt its back getting lighter. His avian face looked up at him in a just time to see his large hand grasping a scroll.

Hashirama eyed the object in his hand curiously. This scroll was clearly formal. Its covering was dark blue and its border was white. Its appearance implied that it originated from the Land of the Water.

How peculiar! Hashirama didn't expect that the word of the mouth about the clans invited to join their founding village extended that far to the Land of the Water. He did not think that the clans in the Land of the Water were interested in this invitation. They were too proud to join this peaceful village and preferred to stay on their ancestral lands that they accustomed to. Maybe the one of the clans in the Land of the Water wanted to make the alliance with them?

It's a plausibility because of the Senju and Uchiha Clan allied with each other. Both of their clans were both powerful. The one of these clans might see something in their alliance in either threatening or useful way, which one he did not know.

Nevertheless, this mysterious scroll certainly intrigued the God of Shinobi. And he liked the moments when the unexpected, but good kind of the surprises sprung on him.

Well, Hashirama was going to find out when he opened this scroll. His hands unrolled the scroll and the exposed white paper hidden within the scroll revealed the context to his eyes.

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**A/N:** Well, hopefully this chapter get your interest up! Seems that Hashirama was intrigued by this mysterious scroll sent from the one of the clans from the Land of the Water. This chapter was preceding to _Chapter 4, Missive. _

Wow, this story reached 40 chapters! I can't believe that I made 40 chapters in this story especially this story was 9 months old since its creation. And this story is a most popular out of all my stories. Thanks for your reviews, favoriting and following my story! Please continue to review this story!


	41. Mortal

**Summary:** Masumi's patient exhibited the bizarre symptoms that made her scratching her head in bewilderment.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Her patient, Shihoin Atsuko, 21 years old healthy woman whose her kunoichi career was considered well-established by the Shihoin Clan's standard, reduced into a moaning mess with a burning fever, her skin flushing pink with the sweat and her hand clutching against her chest acting like if her chest was in a pain.

Atsuko was her current case. Normally, it would be easy for her to solve this case. Much to her dismay, she found herself unable to match these symptoms to the one of the diseases from her massive knowledge. She even tried to detect any anomalies in her patient's body or blood. She got nothing on the results from her scans on her patient's body. Nothing wrong with her body. Nor her chest. She then checked out her patient's chakra system.

It appeared that there was a problem with Atsuko's chakra system, or rather her chakra itself to be exact.

Her patient's chakra behaved in that way that the twelve years old healer did not understand. To her sensitive sensory radar, Atsuko's chakra, for an unknown reason, violently turned against its owner by causing her body temperature core rise dangerously high at a point where a human body could seriously damage itself and even it led to coma or, worse, a death. She tried to analyze her patient's chakra with her kekkei genkai. She received the confusing impression that her patient's chakra was a giant mess ball of the conflicting emotions. Too messy and overwhelming for her empathy ability to read. It felt like Atsuko's chakra had a war with itself. And wrecked her body physically. It baffled her because as far as she knew, she never encountered it before, even in her past incarnation.

For a first time since her rebirth, her conflicting symptoms stumped her. She, a former student of the greatest medical ninja in the Ninja World of her previous incarnation's time and current prodigy in her clan as well as the medical field, was unable to diagnose the perplexing illness that her patient currently ailing with. Sure, her past incarnation saw the lot of bizarre and strange cases in the hospital. For a most of the time, these cases always solved when the source had been found.

But this case? This nature of this condition seemly defied a human logic and really took a cake.

Masumi had no choice, but requested Shihoin Yuu, her current mentor for a two years, to assist her to deal with this case. No way in hell that she allowed her patient die under her watch just because of her pride. Pride had no place in this situation. Saving the one's life was a number one priority in the medical ninja's directives. Even it meant that she had to ask other fellow healer for a help. Tsunade hammered that lesson into her mind.

Her dark green haired mentor entered into her current patient's room. She went to the opposite side of a bed in a front of her student.

Yuu was a middle age woman with a youthful appearance and a long, large braid in a hip-length, though her large braid arranged in a strange way; Her braid was on a front of her body.

She had a hidden steel core under a gentle personality, although her rowdy patients claimed that she had a visage of the scary hannya mask appearing behind her whenever she politely asked them not to disturb others with a pleasant smile. Masumi was skeptical until she witnessed her mentor actually done that to a stubborn kunoichi. That kunoichi literally went ashen pale and reduced to a meek obedient patient. Despite being impressed with her mentor able to get her difficult patient obey her, Masumi sympathized with that poor kunoichi since she once almost saw the flash of that scary hannya mask behind her mother when she was young. That incident made her wonder that this hannya mask visage was actually manifested though a passive-aggressiveness trait that was only unique to the women with the extremely polite manners in her clan.

No wonder that Yuu was a one of the Shihoin Clan's top healers and very good at intimidated the difficult patients without any physical contracts apparently. She hoped that Yuu able to diagnose and maybe identify this strange condition.

"Oh my..." Yuu exclaimed softly, her blue eyes lightened up in the enlightenment as she examined Atsuko's condition and her chakra system with her sensory radar for a less than a minute.

"Yuu-sama?" Masumi asked inquiringly and little worried as she saw a senior healer's reaction. Evidently, her mentor recognized this condition instantly, in which it relieved Masumi slightly. Masumi knew now that she could cure this condition as long as she learnt what exactly kind of the unknown condition her patient have. However, at a same time, she was still worried over her mentor's soft exclamation. She hoped that it was not that severe at a point where it put her patient's life in jeopardy.

"I haven't seen it in that stage for a while. Last time we had that kind of this case, it was several years ago."

"Huh, You saw it before?" A teenager healer looked surprised, her body shifted a bit anxiously and a desire for more information evident in her speech. Her mentor nodded affirmatively.

"Koi no Yamai." Yuu said gravely, completely straight-faced.

A complete dead silence hanged between the two healers, then their patient emitted out a pathetic moan sound again.

"... Love... Sickness?" Masumi parroted slowly in disbelief as her mentor proclaimed a preposterous diagnosis.

Yuu would be laughing at the hilarious sight of the incredible expression on her prodigy student's face, had it not been for their patient was in a potential mortal danger to lose her life to the seemly harmless love.

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**A/N:** Hello! Another chapter arrives here courtesy of me!

Well, Love Sickness was inspired and based on the sickness that contracted by the Amazon Pirates in One Piece. Wonder how the Shihoin Clan cure this strange sickness? Interesting case for Masumi's medical aspect, I'm sure that Sakura saw all kinds of the strange and weird medical conditions when she worked in the hospital. I hope that you find this medical case chapter interesting! Please kindly review this chapter! Your reviews motivate this authoress to write more!

**Translation Note:** Koi no Yamai meant Love Sickness in Japanese. Yuu meant tenderness.


	42. Imaginations

**Summary:** Hashirama's reaction upon reading the scroll.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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Elegant.

That was a first word that came to his mind to describe the sender's handwriting style on the white paper when he first laid his eyes on it. Hashirama encountered the people's own unique handwriting for many years, mostly from the written reports from his clan-members or the missive exchange between him and his allies. He could glean and learn about the bits of their personality from their handwriting quirks.

His wife told him about the quirks in their handwriting could tell you what kind of the basic personality they have and how it played a role in her clan. Apparently the Uzumaki could identify which handwriting belongs to each individual with a just one look. After all, the calligraphy was essential to their specialized field.

His younger brother's handwriting was more orderly in a manner, very much reflecting his logical personality. He, himself has more carefree style in his handwriting, just like his personality.

What did he see on the white canvas on the scroll; A black dried ink flowed fluidly, there was no single stray ink smearing the white canvas and its black stroke lines twisting, bending and straightening beautifully. It had been written in a classical tategumi. The vertical scripts were perfectly straight, not a single kanji were out of the line. This flawless script hinted that this sender had a skill of the master calligrapher. Elegance undoubtedly was a main attribute in the sender's personality.

Hashirama felt his younger brother curiously looked over his shoulder to read a scroll that he held on.

They could tell that the sender was female for sure, in a way she used the gender-specified first person pronoun in this context.

_Greeting to whoever receive this scroll, _

_I have no doubt that you are intrigued by this scroll that came from the one of the clans afflicting with the Land of the Water. You might wonder why we sent this missive across the sea from our island all ways to you._

_It was a simple reason; we heard of your new village and open to anyone who desire to find a new home._

_And we, the Shihoin Clan, are interested in your invitation to reside in your village. _

_I expect you to return a reply, should you accept our application to reside in your village. Once, we receive your missive, in which it takes about three days to reach us from your location with our owl courier. The Shihoin Clan will send our delegation to your village in approximate two weeks after our owl courier returned to us._

_However, I am unable to come to negotiate with you personally. As a Clan Head, I could not stay away from my clan for too long if in case the negotiation process might take longer than expected. Therefore, I selected my Clan Heiress as my Representative as well as a leader of our delegation._

_ I assure you that she did not have any malicious intent toward any clans who already resided in your village. In a fact, my Clan Heiress will be serving as an important bridge between your village and my clan when she will one __day succeed me at a time when my clan resides within your village. This is a reason why I choose my Clan Heiress specifically for this position._

_Our negotiation concerning our housing placement and agreements between us will be discussing though our delegation. We'd be honored if you accept our application. _

_Best Regards,_

_Shihoin Michiko, The 74th Clan Head of the Shihoin Clan_

There was a large silvery emblem stamp beside the clan head's name. A Shihoin Clan emblem consisted of the large hexagon that its top vertex point was on the north pole. Its bottom vertex point was on the south pole. There was another, each two vertex points mirroring each other vertically on the sides. Within the hexagon, a small crescent moon was in a center and enclosed by the perfectly proportional rhombus.

There was another layer that encircled the rhombus; the two large rectangles were overlaid on each other in which formed a square in the center with the four smaller rectangles on its four sides. Each vertex point of the rhombus had its own line extending slightly from its points, crossing over a contour of the square in a middle and stopped at just below the five pointed maple leaves. There were the five pointed maple leaves. Each leaf, sitting on the middle of the contours of the two larger rectangle that was almost touching the inside border of the hexagon, faced toward the cardinal points; north, east, south and west.

Hashirama was stunned, his eyes ready to pop out of its sockets and his jaw dropped down. He couldn't believe his eyes when he was reading a third line.

_Holy Kami's balls!_ The Shihoin Clan? As in that infamous Clan of the Women Warriors rumored to be the most reclusive of all the clans in the Land of the Water? He felt his jaw sinking even more as he continued to read further. By the time when he saw a name of the sender, his jaw literally was on the floor. This missive written directly by no less other than the Serene Lady of the Shihoin Clan herself? Wow, Hashirama did not see that coming!

He was familiar with her reputation despite he never met her personally. Her name was considered a one of the big names in the Land of the Water because few decades ago, she was directly responsible for inflicted a nasty, almost fatal injury on Byakuran whom was the current strongest ninja in the Land of the Water and still managed to come out alive with few mild injuries on her person. Not many people fought him and lived to tell that they got away with their lives intact.

He could tell that everything in scroll including the silvery emblem stamp was god-honest genuine. The Shihoin Clan rarely sent the missives to another ninja clan except the clients and the very, very few selected ones in maybe count less than the fingers on a hand.

To receive this scroll from that reclusive clan was like a farmer being visited by the daimyo.

He never had been imagining ever beyond the wildest imaginations that their childhood dream of the peace attracted the interest of the foreign clan none other than the infamous Clan of the Women Warriors, and they even wanted to reside in their village!

Hashirama truly felt like that Fate smiled upon on this village to have a privilege to be chosen as their potential home by that clan.

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**A/N:** This chapter was a continuation of Chapter 40 in Hashirama's view. If Byakuren sound familiar to you, then yes, you should be! Because that was a name of the First Mizukage. Yes, that old guy with a shark-like teeth and a long scar running over his now blind left eye. I made up the story behind that scar. :P

If you want to know what the Shihoin Clan's clan crest looks like, then Google the Shihouin Clan Symbol from Bleach. Please watch out for a next chapter that involve the action-fighting scene!

I hope you like this chapter in Hashirama's view. Please kindly review this chapter. Your reviews motivate this authoress write more!

**Translation Note:** The Japanese language does have the gender specific first person pronouns. For instance, _ore_ (俺 or オレ) or _boku_ (僕 or ボク) is used as 'I'/'me' mainly by men (women have begun using _boku_ nowadays), while _watashi_ (私 or わたし) or _atashi_ (あたし or アタシ) is used by females. I am not expert in this japanese language. I simply researched that subject. This is how Hashirama identify the sender being female.

Tategumi is a Japanese term for a vertical writing. It usually reads from top to bottom and from right to left.


	43. Fifteen

**Summary:** Jashin got a lucky hit on her.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic. Warning: Gory, Violence and Slight swearing.

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"Yin Seal: Strength of Thousand Seal Release!"

The ornate, indigo tattoo vines sported from the yin seal on her forehead. It was spreading downward to her body, from head to feet. That technique was, in a fact, an improved version and second level of a Yin Seal: Strength of Hundred Seal. She poured a lot of effort to create the improved version. Like an original version of this technique, it had a same ability; a massive chakra boost to any techniques that she used, as well as it provided the continuous, automatic effect that would heal any damage on her instantly.

Except there were two differences between the original and improved version. One, since she was of the Shihoin descent, in which was bestowing her with the massive chakra reserve and potent chakra quality. She started to store her chakra in her Yin seal since she was very young.

Two, it's a looping-type seal technique. She recycled about 25 percent of her chakra reserve back into that seal. That concept of a looping-type Yin seal was inspired by the looping-type techniques that invented by her ancestors. Thinking about her last day of her previous lifetime also was a part of that reason why she earned a new insight on how to improve Tsunade's creation for the better. A only reason that Sakura Haruno died last time was, her Yin seal was running out of the chakra that she stored over three past years.

So, Masumi amended that flaw by altering a nature of her Yin Seal. Unlike the previous version, her current Yin seal could be refilled constantly and remained infinitely as long as she recycled the portion of her chakra reserve back to that seal continually.

In other words, she never had to worry about her Yin seal ran out of the chakra ever again.

A downside was, her body was still growing and not ready for the ponlonging exposure to the second level of the Yin Seal. Consequently, its time limit lasted at least 30 minutes. Any more than 30 minutes, she would forcibly fall into a deep coma that might last for a few months in order to recover from the incredible stress of using that technique. Once that technique used up, it would be not used again and must be recharged at least a year or more. It was more akin to her blonde friend's sage mode before a fox in his stomach agreed to work with him that required the time to recharge.

Because of that, it was considered to be a last resort. However, she felt in her gut that her newer version of her Yin Seal would last longer than its current time limit when her body reached its full maturity.

Jashin grinned in delight as he felt his prey's chakra suddenly skyrocketing to a level at a point where she could take him on. Ohhh! What a feisty prey she was! He personally liked his prey choosing the fight option rather than flee away from him. It was getting boring when the majority of his victims chose that flight option when they realized that he was way too strong for them. It was way more fun when his weaker prey fought him tooth and nail until a beautiful expression of the total despair finally dawned on his prey's face.

He initiated a fight. He aimed for her pretty neck with his scythe. Huh, his prey was able to react faster and dodged his blade sideways without wasting the precious energy and excess movement. He eyed her with the cat-like interest. Then he lashed out the fast barrage of slashes toward her, all aimed for the vital points.

Impressively, his prey managed to evade all of them. He steadily increased his attack speed until his scythe became a crimson blur to the naked eyes.

And she still was able to evade and weave around his scythe like a leaf dancing in the air.

Slash on left. Dodge.

His prey finally launched her first attack.

Falling Axe Kick toward his head. Acting on his gut feeling, he swiftly moved out a path of her downward kicking. A massive crater explosively formed under her foot and the small earthquake erupted. The island trembled as if it groaned in pain under her titanic strength. A series of the multiple ripples formed on a surface of the water and moved away from the quivering island's coastline.

Jashin almost whistled at his prey's impressive display of her monstrous strength as soon as his feet attached the tilted wall of a large crater that looked like a meteor fall out of the sky and impacted the ground with the massive force. He knew that he could take a blunt force of that level that his prey showed her strength earlier. After all, his immortality ensured that he was impervious to the blunt force that normally killed a mortal man. But, if he wasn't acting on his gut feeling, his body would be ending up sinking into the ground like a wooden stake sank into a ground.

It was unsightly unfitting for him being a god, finding himself stuck in the ground like a common wooden stake.

He lashed out toward her hovering person with his scythe in a lightning speed. Trapped being hover in the air, Masumi made an one-handed seal and routed her chakra toward a part of her body.

"Doton: Diamond Hair Shield." Her uneven hair grew longer rapidly, wriggled and moved around her body like a cocoon. Her chakra-filled long hair instantly formed a hard cocoon-like shield and emitted a metal-like sheen glowing. Her Yin Seal ensured her hair technique's hardiness rivaling to the hardiness of the diamond.

A crimson blade met its match.

_Sceeechhh! _A painfully high pitched sounds wailed and the sparks fled everywhere.

A kinetic force behind the blade sent her cartwheeling away sideways in the air.

As soon as she was out of the danger being sliced by his scythe, she released her hair technique and her hair reverted back to its original state. A teenager heiress maneuvered her body in the air, in order to re-orient herself to face him. Her feet landed on the ground with a cat-like grace. Her legs bent forward to absorb and disperse the excess energy.

Simultaneously, her leg muscles tensed and ready to spring forward.

Then she explosively rocketed toward him, so fast enough to catch him off by her unexpected speed. She threw her double chakra-filled fists right toward his chest. That double punch could easily liquidate his organs and bones with a sheer amount of the blunt force alone. It would instantly kill him upon the impact if he was a normal man. But Jashin wasn't normal by a human standard.

Her fists upon his tattooed chest forcibly launched him flying upward. He grunted softly as he felt his tattooed skin bouncing and vibrating by a kinetic force of her double punches. His bared feet dragged along the ground. It left a deep, long two trails on the ground. He slammed his crimson scythe into the ground to stop himself sliding to a halt.

His bared feet finally stopped to drag, he pulled up his scythe from the ground. A bloodthirsty grin formed on his face, he saw her trailing after him, her punches blazed with her chakra and her eyes glared defiantly at him.

He swung his scythe forward. They resumed their deadly dance.

They were at an impasse. Jashin cannot hit her because her reaction time and reflex augmented hundredfold thanks to her Yin Seal: Strength of Thousand Seal. Masumi, in return, unable to injure him because he was impervious to the blunt damages of her punches.

It continued for a while as they danced around and evaded each other.

She finally switched from a taijustu tactic to a ninjustu tactic as she decided that employing the taijustu and her chakra-enhanced punches proved to be ineffective. She inhaled sharply, her cheeks puffed. Her chakra collected in a one spot at her stomach and converted into the water chakra simultaneously. She did not use the handseals at all.

"Suiton: Water Severing Wave!" Masumi spewed out a long and thin, highly pressuzied water jet, and swayed her head from left to right.

Unfortunately for her, Jashin, once again, provided that he was also nimble on his toes. He swiftly bent backward as a thin water jet completely missed its aim to cut him in half horizontally. A frustration swelled up inside her.

She tried another technique; this time, it was a wind technique intending to cut him into the several pieces. Unfortunately, her frustration costed her a few precious seconds to decide. And Jashin ruthlessly exploited a narrow window of opportunity at a moment when she was in a middle of a mental decision-making process.

She moved away in backward in a hurry; trying to avoid a sinster red incoming.

A crimson streak zoomed past by her left arm by an inch, for a moment she thought that it missed her. Then a sharp pain, a familiar sensation of being cut by a blade, suddenly flared briefly and registered on her awarness.

Her blue-green eyes flickered to see a source of a sharp pain, her mind inwardly was alarmed and cursed that her frustration got the better of her for a few seconds. Her nose flared and inhaled slowly to calm herself.

Panicking in a middle of the deadly battle was not certainly a good idea and would lead her to her death. Her calm, logical part of her took over her mind. She analyzed what happened to her.

Jashin managed to score a hit on her. To be exact, her left arm received a glancing blow from its sharp tip of his scythe in a form of a few inched gash that ran below her elbow until it stopped just below her waist, now bleeding profusely.

Normally, she wasn't worried about the injuries that she received, her Yin seal automatically healed her injuries. But, her injury was from Jashin's own scythe and she could feel her injury resisting her automated healing. Quickly, she scanned her injury. What did she find in her injury was not pleasing her. At all.

There was a foreign chakra, likely coming from that entity, though his scythe, in that injury. That dark chakra started to cause her pain receptors burning in agony in the highest setting. It was feeling like an acid burning sensation and electrotion at a same time. Masumi would bought down on her knees and writhed in agony, had she not been muted down her pain receptors a bit. Theoretically, she could shut down her pain receptors in her left arm. But she chose not to do that. The pain was very important and help her to gauge the state of her injuries.

The good thing that she noticed that the dulled pain started to spread her skin around her still bleeding injury. It appeared that his corrupted chakra forced itself into her chakra system, just like the cursed seal did to her former bastard teammate when a snake sannin placed on him at the Forest of Death. Except that skin surrounding her injury started to turn unsightly black and rotting in which the cursed seal didn't do this way like that.

That sadistic bastard! Apparently, her enemy wanted to inflict a lot of pain on his victims. She was pretty sure that he included the rotting effect of his dark chakra to scare and push his victims deeper into the abyss of the despair and hopelessness.

No hell way that Masumi allowed herself falling into that! She was absolutely not going to be a helpless victim and fell into Death's embrace for a second time! Her free hand flew upward, her chakra glowing radiantly in green - a color which symbolized Life - as long as her heart was beating in her chest, Masumi was going to keep fighting him no matter what until she finally conquered a dark god.

After all, Haruno Sakura was given a second chance to be reborn as Masumi of the Shihoin Clan to change the future.

_Splat!_

Her infected, rotting arm fell on the ground, separating from its body. Blood spilled everywhere. At a sight of his prey severing her own limb made him want to moan in pleasure and, at the same time, impressed by her sheer gut to do that to herself. His grin got wider in delight at the bloody scene. He never encountered a clever prey like her, especially she boldly severed her own arm.

That was... quite fresh. Jashin was morbidly curious how his prey fair with this handicap. His prey got more and more interesting. Oh, yes, he had a quite fun playing with his latest prey, which rapidly became his favorite one out of all his past preys, and possibly would be a most delicious meal ever he had in his existence for a long time. He inwardly decided that when he was done eating that lovely transmigrated soul, he would reward his most loyal servant, Kali by granting her an exception from a self-sacrifice clause that he himself placed on his indestructible dagger that served as one of his many soul anchors. Kali did her excellent service to him by finding that such a tasty, interesting soul for him.

Masumi severed her own arm with her scalpel chakra. Completely unconcerned about a fact that she was just chopping off her left limb above elbow and her crimson blood spurted out of her like a geyser spurting out of its ground, although she controlled the blood loss by slowing down her blood flow and making her bone marrows producing more blood cells, Masumi casually directed her potent healing chakra toward a bleeding stump that used to be her left arm.

In her mind's eye, she visually imagined the anatomy of her left arm in an extremely detail- that way the normal ninjas and even, medical ninjas found it hard pressed. She began to convert half of her chakra into a yang chakra and the other half to a yin chakra.

Yin chakra for her extremely detailed imagination of her left arm down to the cellular level. Thank goddess for her advanced preparation, long before today, to scan and mermorize her own body as well as her chakra system at a celluar level in a case like this current situation, she was unable to reattach her bodily part back to her, or her body part was completely unsavlageable. That idea of the complete regeneration came from her heavily researching on a little sea critter commonly found in the sea bed and plentiful everywhere on her ancestral clan island.

A starfish to be exact. Famous for its regeneration ability to replace its lost arm. That ability gave her an insight on how to replicate the body part with a same capability as its original counterpart.

Yang chakra for breathing a life into a form that she created.

The new bones, white as a fresh snow, extended outward and materialized, the blood veins and muscles followed afterward, the tendons formed to connect between the muscles and bones, the new and flawless skin in a same tone as its original skin regenerated over the exposed inner parts and finally, the new chakra tenketsu rebuilt and took the same positions where the original tenketsu was on. There, she literally regrew a new arm identical to her original arm. It all happened within a matter of few seconds.

There was no visible scar around a part where old skin and new skin meet at, the people would have no idea that she amputated and literally regenerated her left arm. She silently inspected her new left arm with her self diagnosing technique and tested its response to her. Her freshly new fingers curled into a fist, perfectly responding to her silent commend.

Good.

She was aware of her newly constructing chakra tenketsu throbbing and flowing with her chakra. That meant her new chakra nodes functioned as same as before.

But was it affecting her chakra control in her left arm? A quick inspection by willing her chakra moving through its nodes. She got her result back a moment later.

Her chakra control remained perfect. But, she had a second level of her Yin Seal activating on her person and it was a first time that she used that level during such a dangerous battle with a powerful foe without any backups. She hadn't yet found out any unintentional side-effects of having her arm regenerating completely during a second level of her Yin Seal. Her body and chakra system still hadn't yet reached its maturity after all. So, she would have a rain check on her health check up later, only if she survived this.

She looked at her internal clock briefly just to see how much time left her Yin Seal has. Then she grimaced inwardly.

She had about fifteen minutes left until her Yin Seal: Thousand Strength of Seal expired. Shit, she'd better search for a way to defeat Jashin or else her soul ended up as a meal for a sadistic god.

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**A/N: **Sorry about a such long wait for this chapter that all of the readers awaiting for! I hope that this fight is good enough for you to enjoy. This chapter continued from a previous Chapter 37, _Rhombus. _

Woah, Masumi endured that level of pain which normally bought the average ninja on his knee, chopped off her own arm and, then regrew a new arm from a scratch! Definitely badass Masumi! Just like Tsunade! But, she still haven't find out how to defeat Jashin yet! Duh, How will she able to defeat him?! I hope that the readers forgive this authoress pull that maneaver that the readers love to hate a word with a passion; Cliffhanger. Yep, that evil cliffhanger.

Worry not! I already plan another two lattar parts of this battle, which was not written officially yet, but it will show up in the future chapters for sure. Besides, just be warned: There will be irregular and slow updates. I will not able write often as much as before. Just like any fanfiction writers, a real life keep me busy. Neverthless, I thanks you for reviewing, favoriting and following my story. Please continue to review, favorite and follow my story! Your interest in my story helps to keep my motivation to continue writing this story.:)


	44. Immune

**Summary:** Masumi was learning the method how to dispel the genjustu in the Shihoin style.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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There were three main methods that used often by the ninjas to dispel the genjustu that cast over a person.

The first method was cutting off the chakra flow and then, applied the strong burst of the chakra to disrupt the caster's chakra. The second method was another unaffected person could help the affected person to break out of the genjustu by applying a strong surge of the chakra into the affected person.

The third and last method was the easiest one and very popular, but rather painful way to break out of the genjustu. The affected person had to inflict himself or herself the intense pain to snap out of the genjustu.

There's another option to dispel the genjustu but was accessible only to the Sharingan users. It couldn't be used by any people. There's a plenty of the unique ways to dispel the genjustu, but it would be only exclusive to the single person who attain it through a lifetime's hard work or unknown means.

Though, the three methods had its own disadvantage; the first two methods would waste the precious chakra. How much left over in a person's chakra reserve have a major factor in the ninja's survival, especially they lived in the tumultuous era where the average life expectancy was 30. The latter gave a person unnecessary injury.

They were, however, unaware of the fourth method that can dispel the genjustu without wasting the precious chakra or a need to inflict the unnecessary injury on the one's self. Though, it required a person to have a near-perfect or perfect chakra control to pull it off.

Fortunately, The Shihoin Clan happened to have a near-perfect chakra control thanks to their bloodline limit, high enough to meet the only requirement of the fourth method. And they made sure that this method was abused thoroughly, so much at a point where they unconsciously shrugged off the genjustu like a slippery ice.

That's exactly what the six years old Shihoin heiress taught by her mother and Asami. They currently resided in the one of their training dojos, preferably filled with the Chakra Filter seals.

"Today, you shall learn how to dispel the genjustu." Michiko announced a lesson plan to them. That statement earned Michiko a confusing looking from her daughter.

"But I thought we were already done with it?" It was true that Masumi already taught to dispel the genjustu with a simple dispelling technique when she was four. She wondered why her mother revisited the genjustu lesson again. Or why did Asami here with them.

"Yes, but there's a much better way to dispel the genjustu without wasting our chakra or hurt themselves. In our clan's way." Michiko explained patiently, putting an extra stress on 'in our clan's way'. Masumi's curiosity perked up by her mother's emphasis on that term. Another way to dispel the genjustu? She wasn't aware that her clan had a secret way on how to remove the genjustu from their person.

"But, a downside is, this method requires the extremely high chakra control. Lucky for us, we meet this requirement to do that." Asami finished for her.

Of course, the members of the Shihoin Clan have the high chakra control, high enough to produce the control-intensive techniques perfectly with a few or less attempts.

"Really?" Masumi said, looked little bit surprising, though she secretly wished that she should learn that life-saving technique in her first lifetime. It would save her so much grief and suffering, had Sakura known this little trick in her genin days when she first encountered Orchimaru at a second part of the Chunin exam.

"Yes. Since the genjustu always composing of the chakra, we can easily detect the chakra long before it touches us. Asami-chan shall demonstrate this method."

"That's why I am here, I'm volunteering to be your guinea pig today. Now, please be gentle with me, Michiko!" Asami made the exaggerating 'please don't hurt me!' expression on her face. It caused Masumi giggling childishly. Michiko smiled humorously.

"Of course, don't worry. I never hurt my own best friend." Michiko continued, her azure blue eyes twinkling in amusement. "Now, I'm going to cast the low rank genjustu over Asami-chan in one minute advance. Please close your eyes and sense our chakra, watch carefully how she dispels my genjustu."

Michiko instructed her daughter as they were in a front of each other.

"Yes, mother." Obeying her instruction, the six years old green haired girl closed her eyes. Masumi extended her sensory sense to Asami, honing on her chakra signature. At a first glance, she did not feel any change in the older woman's chakra. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then, her forehead creased slightly as she tried to increase her focus honing on her. She finally spotted something unusual. Asami's chakra started to vibrate very slowly. It then was increasing faster and faster until it became blurred to her mind's eye.

Michiko said clearly, "_Magen: A Ghost's Whisper_."

Masumi recognized her mother's chosen technique immediately. Magen: A Ghost's Whisper was very subtle genjustu and designed for preying on the victim's paranoia by causing him or her see or hear something that did not exist in reality. It was easy to learn, but required a lot of finesse to perform successfully. She recalled that this technique mentioned earlier by a basic book from the Genjustu section of the Benzaition Library under its overseer, Yomiko's strict supervision. She had no idea that her clan had so many interesting genjustu techniques in their sleeves!

Anyway, her attention shifted away from Asami's rapidly vibrating chakra to her mother's chakra. Her mother's chakra, used to be a soothing warmth that she accustomed to, changed into something slimy; a common trait of the genjustu chakra no matter how it took the many, different forms in the various ways.

Her mother's chakra leaped forward toward its target, not too fast, just in a steady speed in a way that Masumi's mind's eye could easily follow it.

She noticed how her mother's chakra struggle to hook on Asami's vibrating chakra. It was unable to latch on Asami's chakra and ended up sliding away from her rapidly vibrating chakra like a water sliding off the glass.

"Wow, that's a really useful trick!" She said, her eyes snapped open and sparked in a comprehension. Her sharp mind now understood how this technique's inner working process. She marvelled at the simplicity of this technique. She also was impressed by how Asami shrugged off the genjustu like nothing.

"Yes, indeed. It is. This is, what we call this trick, the Chakra Vibration." Michiko said, nodded in agreement with her daughter's comment.

The Chakra Vibration was exactly what it intended to. A chakra user simply made her or his chakra vibrating in very high frequency. It resulted that the invader's chakra unable to latch the owner's rapidly vibrating chakra and slip away just like the water bounce off the glass.

"Now, go ahead and try to copy her." Michiko commanded softly. Masumi nodded eagerly. Her eyes closed together. Her face made a concenatrining expression as she expanded her sixth sense, open to the invisible world of the chakra. She could feel their unique chakra signatures; Her mother's chakra curled back as if it was ready to pounce on her.

At the same time, Masumi started to manipulate her internal chakra, causing it to vibrate faster and precisely as possible as she could. She mimicked exactly what Asami did with her chakra earlier.

Then, her mother's chakra sprang forward and transformed into the now familair, distinctive slimy feeling of the genjustu chakra made up of the yin chakra mostly. She could feel the foreign chakra attempting to latch on and fail its intended goal as soon as it slipped away from her rapid vibrating chakra. Masumi inwardly was pleased at her successful first try.

Asami made a short, impressed whistle as she witnessed Masumi able to mimic her demo perfectly on a first attempt.

"Very good." Her mother praised, her tone suggested that she was proud and impressed with her first try. Her daughter's chakra control was incredibly perfect and flawless, such a rare achievement for a girl her age. Not even she herself could obtain her perfect attempt on that technique on a first try at a same age as her daughter. She believed that her extreme chakra control was either a result of her daughter's unusual condition or more likely her past incarnation's experiences in chakra control.

Naturally, a little girl's chest puffed up with pride as she heard her mother's praise.

"I will cast the genjustu at you silently. If all goes well, then I will increase the cast speed until at a point where you could not keep up. Once you reach that limit, then, you must practice, practice and practice until I'm satisfied with your progress. Understood?" Michiko commanded steely, her face serious. Masumi nodded.

Michiko suddenly smiled, her stern teacher facade reverted back to her pleasant mode.

"Good, A goal behind this training is you develop your automated reflex to dispel the all kinds of the genjustus with an exception of the dangerous ones that were beyond above your ability. You also will learn how to endure under the continuous surge of the genjustu bombardment like a boat sails though a water. Any queries?"

She understood a reason behind a new training that her mother assigned her. It was rather nice and refreshing to learn another way to dispel the illusion. She'd been happy to have this handy technique adding into her list.

It was pretty obvious to her that any enemies would have a hard time to pull the wool over the Shihoin's eyes. To the Shihoin's sensory range, any invisible genjustu stuck out like a sore thumb and ended up rendering useless by this simple trick. A sudden thought came to a six years old heiress, but what about the Sharigan's powerful genjustu techniques such as Tsukuyomi?

"Yes, I have a question, though. Are we really, really immune to all of the genjustu techniques?"

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**A/N: **Yay! Another quick update! But it didn't mean that I will update regularly though. It only happened when I had a good rush of inspiration or my muse was in a good mood to write. Ohh! Interesting way to dispel the genjustu! And Masumi had a good question, though! The Shihoin Clan had the lot of the interesting tricks in their pockets! Masumi still have a plenty of the new things to learn from her new clan. What did you think of this clan's way to dispel the genjustu?

The conception of the Chakra Vibration was inspiring by the science and watching the few episodes of Time Wrap TV show. Hope you like it!

Please kindly review this chapter! Your reviews make a writer happy, a happy writer = write more and this story will update quickly! :)


	45. Funeral

**Summary:** The Inuzuka male with a sexist attidue and the Shihoin kunoichi with the feminist mentality did not mix well. Mix them, you'll get an explosive result.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Ah! Whoops, I'm sorry!" She exclaimed as she clumsily maneuvered around a male passerby, whose appearance was clearly Inuzuka, trying to avoid bumping him. She sighed exasperatingly at her own chronic clumsiness. No matter that she born and raised as a clan kunoichi or even bestowed with her clan bloodline, she was still prone to bump something when she attempted to walk though the busy street.

"OI! Watch your steps, wrench!" A bystander, whose appearance of a tall, muscular man with a long, and wild black hair and the distinctive red fang markings running down his cheeks said rudely. The young, pretty woman with the blue eyes abruptly turned around to face him, her forest green hair swayed wildly and her face took on an offending expression.

"Excuse me?! What did you call me?!" She hissed angrily. She did not appreciate that someone called her a wrench. Her chakra flared up slightly in anger.

"Ah? What the hell were you talking about? I said, watch your steps!"

"No! That's not one, you called me 'wrench'!"

"So, what? It's not like everybody care about that!"

"I do care! It's rude to call us like that! We, kunoichi, should be respected!"

Meanwhile, a white large dog with a slightly thick and bushy tail shook its head in dismay as he observed his idiot human partner bickering with a kunoichi right on middle of the busy street. Being a typical curious dog, he inhaled the air through his nose to get a scent sample of that kunoichi.

To his canine nose, that kunoichi smelled like the sweet herbs, and the sharp antiseptic soap. There was a faint metallic scent of blood still clinging to her. However, under all these scents that was only unique to her, his canine nose detected a rather prominent, untamed wilderness with a salty tinge in her natural scent. It reminded him of the alpha females in his pack.

However, unlike the alpha females' scents usually resembled the earthly wilderness of the forest, her natural scent was far more resembling the wilderness of the unpredicatable sea. That meant that this female was twice dangerous more than the alpha females in his pack.

Their vocal argument attracted the attentions of the quickly growing audience, most were bystanders. The audience, surrounding around the squabbling duo, eyed them in interest. A few looked like they were ready to step in, should these two people start brawling in a middle of the street since it was filled with the people. Their eyes were looking at a heated exchange between the Inuzuka and Shihoin back and forth.

Then... his human partner had the gall to scroff at her.

"Respect? Pffftttt! Really? You should stay at home and take care of the children. You have no place in the battlefield." His sexist comment drew out the quiet hissing displeasure from the few women in the audience who obviously were the kunoichi.

_Uh Oh_! A ninja dog thought as he placed his paw on his head in shame. He was letting out a dog version of the exasperating sigh. His human partner had a tendency to put a foot in his mouth when it came to the alpha females.

Everyone stared at him incredibly and shared a similar thought along a line like this,_ 'This young man really dug his own grave.' _

"...I see... What's your name?" A green haired woman asked in almost sickly sweet tone and her lip curled upward darkly. That kind of a smile promised to deliver the most humiliating retribution ever on the offender. Seeing the disturbing sight of such a dangerous smile on her face made a ninja dog feel a little afraid for his human partner.

"Inuzuka Inuyasha." Inuyasha replied gruffly.

"Well, this wrench called Shihoin Kagome would like to challenge you in a spar. Want to bet on a kunoichi can defeat a shinobi in a straight-forward taijustu? Then, we'll see who is right. A loser will have to listen to a winner's whatever orders for a week just like a dog listening to his master. Or... you are not enough to be a man to beat a strong kunoichi like me." Kagome issued a challenge and added a last statement to jibe Inuyasha's manly pride.

Inuyasha snorted snidely. A kunoichi defeated a shinobi in a pure taijustu? What a preposterous thought! So, this woman thought that she could beat him in taijustu? Well, he was going to put this feisty kunoichi into a submission in the Inuzuka fashion, like an alpha dog dominated over other dogs.

"Ha! Is it so? Whoever wins, will be a loser's master for a week, you say? I accept your challenge." Inuyasha grinned at a prospect of bragging to his friends that he got this exotic looking, feisty kunoichi submissive to him. Then, he felt his ninken's gaze on him. He looked back at his ninken.

"What?"

A ninja dog barked in a couple of times. Kagome raised her eyebrow slightly as she watched the brief conversation between the Inuzaka male and his ninken with an interest. She really don't understand the dog language. However, she had an inkling that his ninken tried to warn him about her. Clearly, this dog had a common sense and smarter than Inuyasha, whose in her opinion, his behavior toward her was insulting.

"Don't worry, Tessaiga. I can take on her. After all, she was just a kunoichi. Her bark is worse than her bite. All the things I need to beat her is, my own strength." Inuyasha remarked dismissively.

A white canine now identified, Tessaiga shifted his eyes sideways to see her a little bit. He winced inwardly as he caught the dangerous, dark expression flashed over her face. For a moment, he thought that she looked like that she was about tearing Inuyasha apart with her bared hands. That murderous expression swiftly buried under her pleasant facade, so quick that he would think that he had a hallucination, had it not been for his trusty canine nose. He still could smell the rather strong scent of the outrage on her person spiking violently in a response to Inuyasha's disdainful remark.

Her fake smile, obviously was straining a bit as Kagome struggled to ignore a maddeningly urge to blow up at his snide remark. Or punch him in his face. Or even better, deliver a well-deserved kick on a certain spot between his legs.

Kagome was well-aware that losing her explosive temper in the public was not good for her clan's rocky relations to other clans and the civilians. Her Clan Head, Michiko-sama, was strictly forbidding her clan members from being a first to initiate any physical brawls for no reasons, unless they issued the friendly sparrings or defended themselves from an attack.

For the sake of the fragile relations between the Shihoin Clan and Konoha, they had to ignore the male outsiders' sexist attitude or, even disrespectful comments thrown at them. It was a quite trying for some in her clan whose shared a similar temperamental nature as her. But, it didn't mean that the Shihoin Clan was going to let these people walking all over them.

In their own passive-aggressive way, they simply defied their way of thinking by showing that the women have the same capability as the men in any fields both ninja and civilian alike.

She breathed deeply and slowly. She forced herself to relax. She could feel herself back in her control, her mind no longer fogged by her explosive temper.

Good. Now, she could focus on plotting the humiliating defeat of this Inuzuka sexist. Kagome wouldn't allow herself to get blind by her emotions during a fight and ended up as this sexist's slave for a week, wouldn't she?

Resigning at Inuyasha's obviousness to the danger of incurring the feminine fury from a kunoichi who happened to be a member of the infamous Clan of the Women Warriors, Tessaiga pointedly shrugged and gave Inuyasha that doggy kind of expression plainly said, 'Well, it's your funeral.'

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**A/N: **Well, now you got a look at how the Shihoin kunoichi (Her name mentioned in previous Chapter 25, Kagome was Kaede's granddaughter.) deal with this sexist guy (Yes, I based this Inuzaka guy on Inuyasha, a character from _Inuyasha_. Even his ninken had a same name as Inuyasha's sword, too. ) Now the Shihoin clan was in for a bumpy ride - to deal with the sexists and learn how to get along with the various clans especially the males. Not easy for the matriarchal clan who just recently move from its centuries old home to Kohona where the patriarchal society took a strong root in.

Not mentioning that the Shihoin clan have their own customs and culture whose was more close-related to the culture of the Land of Water (as in the island lifestyle, that trait was more common among these live in the Land of Water, after all that country made up of the many smaller islands surronding the largest island.) rather than the culture of the Land of Fire. All these factors created the troublesome problems (aka the culture shocks and the revolutionary ideas about the women have the equal rights as the men.) for the Shihoin clan and Konoha.

Interesting, isn't it, eh? Anyway, I hope you enjoy these characters and chapter. Your reviews are very much appericated and a lifeblood of the poor writer who obviously made no profit from this story.


	46. Karma

**Summary:** It was Ishiko's turn to summon her own first summon.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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"Maa, maa, I believe it's your time to summon your owl. Ishiko-chan." Michiko interrupted, distracting her from plotting her payback.

Ishiko grumbled as she wiggled her big toe to see if it still functioned okay. It felt strung but fine otherwise. Right, summon her owl summon first. She gave herself some distance away from Michiko and Masumi to ensure the successful summoning.

"Kuychoise no Justu!" She said, mirroring the action what her best friend done to summon her first summoning technique earlier.

A web of the summoning seals formed under her hand. A pop sound occupied with smoke. Her extra perceptive sense through her feet detected something against the ground.

"Hi! I'm Keiryo! Nice to meet you!" A distinctive high-pitched female voice introduced herself to her new summoner excitingly. A blind girl took back at the hyper tone of her first owl summoning. She could tell that her owlet's personality was rather opposite to her best friend's lazy owlet from her owlet's speech mannerism.

"...Shihoin Ishiko." She replied slowly as she examined and memorized Keiryou's chakra signature. Keiryou's chakra felt like that it was a ball of cheerfulness with an airy touch. If Ishiko compared her little owlet to someone she know in a term of the personality, her personality was more akin to some of her rowdy relatives who has a personality of the hyperactive, excitable child.

"Are you blind? Cool! I never had a blind summoner before!" Keiryo gushed, inspected and hopped around her new summoner with a childlike excitement.

She blinked as her sharp hearing picked up her personal owlet's odd walking sound pattern, surprisingly light for an owlet her age. A first word that came to her mind when she first heard Keiryo's walking pattern.

"... I think that I should call you Twinkletoe."

"Okay!" Keiryo said airily, not totally bothered paying attention at a fact that her mistress bestowed a nickname upon her. Ishiko blinked again, her head tilted slightly.

Well, it appeared that her owlet had a thick skin (or feathers in her case). Keiryo then, noticed another human beside her new summoner. She chirped excitedly as she spotted another fellow owlet her age snoozing owlet whose evidently not yet dispelling himself. Maybe a new human was her new summoner's friend who summoned her fellow owlet for a same reason as her new summoner? Better ask her new summoner!

"Ooo! Is that a pretty princess your best friend? Is it her first time just like you?"

Ishiko paused. Masumi was her best friend? Well... she supposed it was true in her case. After all, her free time spent with Michiko a lot, ever more than other kids her age.

"Yes, Her name is Masumi-hime. And, yes. we did it together. "

"Best friend forever?"

"If she wishes so." A blind girl said curtly.

"I don't mind being a best friend forever with you, even you call me that annoyed nickname. Apagarus-chan"

Ishiko silently ignored an unexplainable warmth in her chest.

"Yeah, only if Princess can grovel to my awesome power to bestow the nicknames upon people."

Masumi rolled her eyes at her blind friend's self-proclaimed statement. Her mother, currently watched over their summoning lesson, chuckling softly.

Keiryo's eyes went starry at them and their bantering.

Oh, what a such amazing friendship between her blind summoner and this pretty princess! She wanted that kind of friendship like them! Her mind decided as soon as her eyes zoomed on her lightly dozed fellow owlet.

"Hey, Pretty Princess! What's his name?"

Masumi quirked her eyebrow at a female gray owlet who looked like that she was marching toward her goal.

"Taidaime." She answered besumedly. Keiryo beamed happily. "Thanks!"

She proceeded to walk toward her fellow owlet.

"Psst, Wakey-wakey, sleepyhead!" Keiryo singsong cheerily.

"What?" Taidaime opened his eye irritably, his other eye remained shut and his voice filled with annoyance in which Keiryo flippantly ignored.

"Hi, Taidaime! I'm Keiryo! Since our summoners are best friends forever, so we should be best friends forever!" She chirped childishly with a resolve that could not be swayed by anyone who might try to change her mind. Taidaime's another eye that still remain closed earlier, suddenly opened.

Ishiko practically grinned evilly as she felt the horror rolling off Taidaime's chakra upon his reaction to her owlet's friendship declaration.

And it appeared that her owlet misinterpreted his reaction as a surprise at her sudden proclamation.

Too bad, she can't see that feather-ball menace wearing that priceless expression. Oh well, at least she found a loophole in that rule forbidden the physical assault on the owl summons.

She now could inflict an indirect revenge on him without getting into trouble with the Owl Clan in a form of her owlet summon. Awesome, her owlet was a best summon ever she had!

Meanwhile, Taidaime's eyes shifted away from a sight of his fellow owlet to Ishiko. He felt a chill in his spine as he watched Ishiko smiling impishly.

"Oh, I'm sure he'd love to have you as his best friend forever as always." Ishiko said mischievously. Taidaime inwardly groaned as Keiryo's eyes get impossibly wider and even more sparky so much; he thought that she might shoot the stars out of her eyes.

"Really?! Pretty Please! I want us to be best friend forever!" Keiryo exclaimed, her face shifted into the sad puppy-like expression.

"..."

"Please?"

"..."

"I don't want us to feel lonely."

"...Fine." Taidaime said sulkily, knowing that his fellow owlet would not stop nagging at him until she got what she want. Besides, isn't that his worrying mother wanted him to make his own friends, so he could play with his playmates his age. Truthfully, he was preferring the quiet naps and solitary rather than playing with his fellow owlets. Still, he did feel lonely sometimes.

Apparently, Fate disagreed with him and went ahead to pick a friend for him without his consent.

"Yay! I promise that we will be great friends just like our summoners!" Keiryo chirped and proceeded to hop around him in a victory, acting like that she struck gold.

Taidaime huffed with resignation, he could hear her blind summoner snickering at him for ending up become a victim of Karma.

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**A/N: **Hello! Sorry for a such long wait! This chapter continued straightforward from Chapter 38. So far, we learnt bit about their owlet summons' characters and personality. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and their character development! And watch out for next chapter! It will involving the politics in the Shihoin Clan. *wink*

Translation Note: Keiryo means light weight in Japanese, hence why Ishiko gave her 'Twinkletoe' nickname. *grin* That nickname was a reference to Toph gave Aang this nickname (Both characters were from the show _Avatar: The Last Airbender_.)


	47. Explain

**Summary:** The audience's reaction to their clan heiress's proposal. (Continued from Chapter 32)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

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The pandemonium erupted in a volcano-like manner. The audience and even some high ranking relatives protested loudly in shock all at once.

Other people with the dignified disposition went still. Their faces looked either stiff or surprised. The frosty expressions formed on the faces of the few elders and clan councillors.

There were even one or two of them openly sneering at Masumi.

"WHAT?" The majority of the audience exclaimed in shock. The male clan members blinked rapidly in bafflement and wondered if they entered a surreal world by the accident.

"What did she say? I could swear that I thought I hear she says that she wants us move to another place." An elderly lady exclaimed loudly, her wrinkled hand formed around her ear. She tilted her head sideways to look at a younger woman, whose seat was left next to her, and expected her younger fellow member to help her.

A younger woman, who sat next to an elderly lady, was too busy gaping at Masumi's unexpected announcement and didn't reply at her at all. An elderly lady huffed in displeasure. Then her bony elbow jabbed a younger woman in her right side.

"Gah!" It startled a younger woman out of a stupor. A younger woman looked at her elder clan member in a dazed confusion.

"Well?" An old woman glared impatiently at her, completely obvious to the chaos surrounding around her. A younger woman didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Meanwhile, another seat whose a twelve old young girl cried out in a confused surprise. "HHOOOEEEE?"

A bold clan member muttered, "What the hell?!"

"Is she gone bonkers?" Another clan member with an even more daring personality said in disbelief. To think that Masumi-hime's proposal was absurd!

The exclamation and chattering got louder and louder until the shrill volume reached at a point where it became unbearable.

Kaede wasn't pleased, her eyebrow twitched at the unbearable noise level. She must act quickly before the situation got out of control.

"SILENCE!" Kaede roared. Despite her advanced age, her voice was powerful enough to reach all ways throughout the auditorium and managed to drown the noisy crowd. The audience promptly silenced in shock.

Masumi winced a little bit since she was closer to Kaede and her hearing took a blunt of her surprisingly loud voice. Thankfully, she didn't go deaf as her roar wasn't loud enough to damage her hearing. She couldn't see her audience's expressions as her back was toward them.

However, she could see how the elders and clan councillors reacting to her proposal in both physically and emotionally. Their calm chakra now became chaotic.

Her sensory bloodline easily picked up the similar reaction from her audience's chakra as they unintentionally advertised their rather strong emotions in their chakra.

The mass chakra signatures filled with the confusion, bewilderment and outrage. They couldn't fathom why Masumi-hime want to change the centuries old occupation. Some of them was looking up at their clan head in a confusing inquiry.

Michiko's face remained blank. Her posture was serene. It revealed nothing about her opinion concerning her daughter's proposal. After all, she was supposed to be neutral and had to allow her clan members to have their say over the Shihoin clan's future.

Masumi internally grimaced.

That's... exactly this unfavorable reaction she expected from her listeners. She knew that her clan members weren't overly fond of the sudden change out of the blue without any reasons.

Masumi and Kaede waited in silence for a few minutes in, which allowed their clan members recollecting back their thought into some semblance of order.

As soon as they calmed down, Kaede's functioning eye stared at the Clan Heiress with a hawk-like focus, and commanded sharply with a just one word.

"Explain."

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Hello, my dear readers both old and new, long time no see! Sorry about a such long wait for this chapter. Thank you for your patience with this ridiciously slow writer! I was constantly amazed that this story had over 300 reviews, 385 favs and 420 follows. I'm happy that the readers like this story! Many thanks for reviewing, favoriting and following this story.

So, what do you think of this chapter and the Shihoin Clan's politic? Good or Bad? Please review so I know what the readers think of this chapter!


	48. False Invincibilty

**Summary:** Asami answered Masumi about an immunity to the genjustu. (After Chapter 44)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything afflicted with any other video games, anime, manga or comic.

* * *

"Yes, I have a question, though. Are we really, really immune to all of the genjustu techniques?"

Masumi asked as her head tilted in a childlike way. Masumi smiled and was about replying, then paused as she felt her best friend's chakra flicking slightly in a very subtle manner. She looked sideways at Asami curiously.

"Mind if I answer her question?" Asami requested.

Michiko nodded, as being her daughter's main teacher, she was granted her best friend a permit to do so. Asami smiled in thanks. Her attention returned to Masumi, who turned to her expectingly.

Quietly standing back as an audience, Michiko listened attentively as Asami gave her little daughter an answer.

"Yes and No"

"...?" Masumi tilted her head confusedly again in the opposite way, her eyebrow quirked in question. She silently waited for more explanation.

Asami clarified, "It's not true. We are not invincable nor infallible. After all, we are humans and still prone to make mistakes. We still can fall to prey to the genjustu if the enemies catch us our guard off or we are too exhausted to pay attention. There's some plenty of the genjustu techniques that are powerful enough to overcome our Chakra Vibration technique."

"Such as... " Masumi egged her more.

"Such as the Uchiha Clan's ultimate sharingan genjustu technique, the Kurama Clan's super rare reality bending genjustu, the powerful genjustu techniques with the frequency enough fast to overcome our Chakra Vibration or even some of our own crazy twisting genjustu techniques. Or if there's an existence of the enemy, who's one in the a million genius in a genjustu field with an insane chakra control. I'm sure there's plenty more. Anyway, a point is, our Chakra Vibration technique did not make us almighty as the Sage of the Sixth Paths." Asami ticked off each genjustu technique that rendering the Chakra Vibration ineffective.

Masumi inwardly noted that Tsukuyomi included in this list. She silently admonished herself for thinking that she was completely immune to the sharingan with this new technique.

"Indeed, we are not almighty like the Sage of the Six Paths. We are just... giving our enemies a hard time to take us down. You must remember that we are mortal human and can be defeated any time by anyone." Michiko supplied.

"Right, if you keep that arrogant thinking of being immune to all genjustu like that, I will slap you with the most embarrassing genjustu ever so hard that you can't rid of it with the Chakra Vibration just alone. Be open-minded and a keen awareness that you are not the Sage of the Six Paths will help you live much longer." Asami said cheerfully, a menacing tone tainted her cheerful voice.

Masumi nodded in agreement with both of them. Their statements had the wisdom coming from their experience as the kunoichi facing the countless dangers.

At least, a good thing is, she asked her that question. It will help her know a limit of the chakra vibration technique and, more importantly, prevent the false invincibility from getting hold of her.

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**A/N:** Well, at least Masumi learnt a good lesson. Even it was a second time. Never assuming that she can be invinciable. She was still human and can die any time. After all, humans sometimes need to remind often, as they frequently forgot their important lessons.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review this chapter, more reviews equal more chapters come!


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